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Gibson 


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LlDrar,  Bureau  Cat.   NO.  1152.2 


5U244 


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ONLY,  and  is  subject  to  a  fine  of  ^/0/^ 
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AU6  3 


1977 


EYE     SPY 

AFIELD   WITH    NATURE 
AMONG    FLOWERS    AND    ANIMATE   THINGS 


WILLIAM    HAMILTON    GIBSON 


ILLUSTRATED   BY  THE   AUTHOR 


NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 


WILLIAM  HAMILTON  GIBSONS  WORKS. 

ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


OUR  F.nini.F.  TOADSTOOLS  AND  MUSHROOMS,  and  How 
to  Distinguish  Them.  Thiriy  Colored  Plates,  and  Kitty-seven  other 
Illustrations.      8vo,   Cloth,    Uncut    Edges    and    Gilt    Top,     $3.50- 

SHARP  EYKS.    A  Rambler's  Calendar.    Nnu  Edition.    8vo, Cloth, 

Ornamental,  #2  50. 
STKOI.l.S    \\\   STARLIGHT    AND    SUNSHINE.      Royal   8vo, 

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HAPPY   HUNTING-GROUNDS.      A  Tribute  to  the  Woods  and 

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PASTORAL  DAYS;   or,  Memories  of  a  New  England  Year.     4to, 

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Publisher  bv   HARPER   &   BROTHERS,  New  Y( 


Copyriglil,  1897,  by   II.\kpkk  &   I5rotiif.rs. 


rED    STATES 

B-X 


A  Nahiralist  s  Boyhood 

The  Story  of  the  Floundering  Beetle j 

Fox-fire J 

A  Homely  Weed  7vith  Interesting  Fhm<ers 24 

Two  Fairy  Sponges -.^ 

Green  Tansies , , 

•/•/ 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ttimble-bug 

Those  Horse-hair  Snakes ^ , 

'''■Professor  Wiggler'' y^ 

•'  Cow-spit,  Snake-spit,  and  Frog-spit  " ^j 

The  Paper  Wasp  and  His  Doings g^ 

The  Spiders  Span ^^  . 

Ballooning  Spiders j^^ 

The  Lace- wing  Fly ,  ,^ 

The  Perfumed  Beetles ^.^ 


5(t244 


IV  CONTKNTS 

Mushroom  Sporepriuts ij6 

Some  Curious  Cocoons /^5 

Ndtk-Uaf  Tent-huihlrs 1^4 

The  Evetiing  Primrose i6j 

The  Datuitiioti  Burglar /-/ 

The  Troubles  of  the  Jlouse-JIy ij8 

Tendrils iS^ 

A  Strange  Story  of  a   Grasshopper jg^ 

Kiililhs  in  FUnvers 202 

Luck  in   Clovers 21J 

Barberry  ATanners 221 

A  Woolly  Floek 2jo 

''What  Ails  Him  f" 2j8 

77ie  Cieada's  J.ast  Song 246 

Index      ...                                                   2S7 


m0'  '■"i 


^Ljc" 


Page 

William  HamiltoJi  Gibson Frontispiece 

Initial ^£ 

Initial.     Biitteraip  Leaves j 

Three  Views  of  a  Helpless  Beetle 2 

Down  Among  the  Buttercup  Leaves j> 

An  Adventurous  Baby ^ 

The  Adopted  Home q 

Initial.     Fox-fire  and  Fungus // 

A  Luminous  Fragment /-, 

Three  Specimens  by  Day jc 

Three  Specimens  by  Alight jc 

A  Fox-fire  Bugaboo jy 

The  Bugaboo  by  Daylight 21 

Initial.     The  Figwort 24 

A  Flower  with  Three  Welcomes 2g 

Sipping  the  Nectar.     Fig.  i j,/ 

In  Flight  with  Pollen.     Fig.  3 j./ 

Transferring  the  Pollen  to  Stigma.     Fig.  j j2 

Fifth  Day — Pod  Enlarging j2 

Sitigular  Method  of  Branching  and  Flowering jj 

Initial •, 


Vi  LIST   OF   DESIGNS 

Pag,- 

The  Rose  Mischief-maker 35 

The  Fairy  Using  Her  Magic  Wand 3(> 

The  Elfin  Sponge  of  the  Oak 39 

The  Real  Fairy  of  the  Oak  Sponge 40 

The  Elfin  Sponge  of  the  Brier  Rose 4^ 

The  Inhabited  Rose  Sponge 43 

Initial.     Pansies 44 

The  Materials 47 

Making  a  Whole  Plant  Green J/ 

A    Tumbler  Concealed  Near  By 32 

Initial.     The  Sacred  Scarabceus 53 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tumble-bug  Rolling  the  Ball j/ 

Sinking  the  Ball 6r 

Young   Tumble-bug  Digging  out  from  His  Dintgeon  ...  6j 

Initial 64 

Amos 66 

Dangerous  Ground  for  Grasshoppers  and  Crickets  .     ...  6g 

Busy  Grasshoppers 7^ 

Initial.     Lilacs 72 

"Professor  Wiggler"  at  Home 74 

The  Lilac   Twig  in  June 7^ 

Tunnelling  the  Twig 80 

"Professor  Wiggler"  Moth Si 

Initial.     Grasses  and  Weeds Sj 

The  Home  of  the  "Spume-bearer" S7 

The  Real  Culprits 90 

Initial.     A  Nest  of  the  Paper  Wasp gi 

A  Wolf  in  the  Fold pj 

He  was  Hanging  Head  Downward gg 

Off  for  the  Paper  Nest iot 

Initial.     Brooklyn  Bridge 104 

Bridging  the  Brook 107 

From    Tree  to   Tree log 

Initial.     Preparing  for  Flight 112 


LIST   OF    DESIGNS  vii 

Page 

Draped  in  the  Glittering  Meshes /y^ 

Spider-egg  Cocoon ; j-,^ 

Initial.      The  Lace-wing  Fly j,^ 

The  Wolf  in  the  Fold ,  ,^ 

A  Tempting  Aphis  Brood J27 

Where  the  Aphides  Swarm j^s 

Initial.     A  Woodland  Path jjq 

The  Perfumed  Beetles y-,-, 

Initial.     A  Spore-pri7it y-,^ 

Spore  Surface  of  a  Polyportis /-,p 

Spore  Surface  of  a  Polygaric /-.o 

Method  of  Making  Spore-pri7its z^y 

Spore-print  of  a  Boletus y^. 

Initial.     A  Nocturnal  Bird y^^ 

From  a  Correspondent y  ._ 

77;!^  Contents  of  the  Cocoon j^q 

Where  the  Cocoon  Came  From jr^ 

"  The  Owl  on  Mtiffled  Wing  " y ., 

Initial.     Nettles ^ 

Leaf-tents  of  the  " Comma"  Caterpillar jjy 

A  Design  for  a  feweller y^^ 

Initial.      The  Evening  Primrose j^:. 

Two  Kinds  of  Buds ^^^ 

The  Evening  Primrose ,x_ 

"  The  Worm  i'  the  Bud" y^j> 

The  Chrysalis  and  its  Moth y^^ 

The  Substitute  for  the  Bud y-,^ 

Initial.     Dandelions ^» 

The  Nest-builder ^ 

Initial.     A  Fly  Model j^g 

An  Interrupted  Toilet y-„ 

An  Episode  of  Fly-time .     .     .  1S2 

A  Victim  of  Fly  Fungus jg 

Initial.     Sweet-teas j^r 


viii  LIST    OF    DESIGNS 

Pag,- 

yhi  Iiiipossihle  and  Real  Tendril i86 

Grape   Tendrils  Evolved  from  Blossoms iSS 

The  Star  Cucumber  and  its  Compound   Tendrils     ....  igo 

The  Prank  of  a   Tendril I93 

Initial.     An  Impaled  "  Quaker " 195 

The  Haunt  of  the  Grasshopper J97 

The  liirth  of  the  Parasites 200 

The   Two-formed  Flowers 202 

Puzzling  Forms  and  Faces 20J 

A.  Fertilization  of  a  F louver,  as  Bclie7'cd  by  Greiv  and  Linnceus  206 

B.  Linnaus's  Idea  was  IVrong 206 

C.  and  D.   What  Sprcngel  did  not  Explain 207 

1  he  Way  in  which  the  Flower  is  Fertilized 210 

Initial.     Chnwr  Leaves 2tj 

A  Rowen  Field 21J 

A  Five-Leaved  Specimen 219 

Sleeping  Clover. 220 

Initial.     A  Barberry  Branch 221 

"In  Arching  Bowers" 22^ 

Barberry  Blossoms,  Showing  Sepals  and  Petals  Open.    Fig.  i  226 

Barberry  Blossoms.  Sho7uing  the  Approach  of  the  Bee.    Fig.  2  22S 

Initial.     A  Woolly  Flock 2jo 

One  of  the  Flock  Magnified  ............  2jj 

A  Winged  Aphis 2j^ 

Initial.     Woodbine  Branch  a)id  Sphinx  Caterpillar    .     .     .  2jS 

What  Happened  the  Next  Day 241 

What  He  Should  Have  Become 244 

The  Mischief  Maker 245 

Initial.     Bearing  Off  the  Prey 246 

A  Section  of  the  Sand-bank .  2^2 

In  the  Dungeon .  i>jj 


EYE    SPY 


A  Natttralist's  BoyJiood 


AM  enjoying  a  book,  a  picture,  a 
statue,  or,  say,  a  piece  of  music. 
I  know  these  to  be  the  finished 
works  of  the  man  or  the  woman, 
but  I  invariably  hark  back  to  the 
boy  or  the  girl. 

What  I  want  to  discover  is  the 
precise  time,  in  the  Hves  of  cer- 
tain boys  and  girls,  when  the  steel  first  struck  the  flint, 
the  spark  flew,  and  out  streamed  that  jet  of  fire  which 
never  afterwards  was  extinguished. 

I  was  reading  an  article  entitled  "  Professor  Wrig- 
gler," written  by  Mr.  William  Hamilton  Gibson,  which 
appeared  in  "  Harper's  Young  People,"  in  the  number 
of  October  31,  1893.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  both  old 
and  young,  at  home  and  abroad,  delight  in  reading  what 
Mr.  Hamilton  Gibson  has  written,  because  he  was  not 
alone  the  most  observant  of  naturalists,  but  a  distin- 
guished artist  and  a  sympathetic  author. 

He  thus  filled  a  peculiar  position  in  the  literary  and 
artistic  world  which  is  seldom  given  to  any  one  man  to 
fill.  Besides  being  a  naturalist  from  his  boyhood,  he 
was  able  to  write  better  than  most  people  what  he 
wished  to  write,  and  to  illustrate  his  articles  in  a  way 
that  was  unique.      Mr.  Gibson's  death  a  few  days  ago. 


College 


\II  A  natukai.ist's  royhood 

therefore,  has  closed  the  career  of  a  man  who  had  the 
abihty  to  interest  a  large  number  of  people  not  only  in 
natural  history,  but  in  art  and  literature. 

Tile  news  of  Mr.  Gibson's  death  came  to  me  suddenly, 
ami  as  I  was  reading  it  I  recalled  an  interesting  talk  I 
hatl  w  ith  him  less  than  a  year  ago  about  his  work  early 
in  life  and  tiic  way  he  got  his  start.  I  had  been  read- 
ing one  of  his  articles  to  a  lady,  who,  when  she  heard 
the  name  of  the  author,  said : 

"  \\'h\-,  I  knew  Mr.  Hamilton  Gibson  long  ago.  When 
he  was  a  lad  he  painted  a  lovely  drop-curtain  for  us. 
He  could  not  have  been  more  than  fifteen  or  sixteen 
then." 

The  next  time  I  met  Mr.  Hamilton  Gibson  I  asked 
him  about  this  drop-curtain.     "  Do  you  remember  it?" 

"Certainly  I  do.  We  had  a  temperance  society  at 
Sandy  Hook,  Connecticut,  and  we  gave  a  grand  enter- 
tainment. I  made  the  drop-curtain.  It  represented  a 
wood.  There  was  a  rock  in  the  foreground,  and  a  Vir- 
ginia-creeper was  climbing  over  it." 

"  Was  it  an  original  composition?"  I  asked. 

"  I  made  many  studies  of  the  rock  and  the  Virginia- 
creeper  from  nature.  On  the  other  side  of  the  curtain 
I  painted  a  drawing-room.  There  were  a  marble  mantel- 
piece, a  clock,  and  lace  curtains,  I  don't  think  I  enjoyed 
painting  the  clock  as  much  as  the  Virginia-creeper." 

"To  paint  a  drop-curtain  at  fifteen  or  sixteen  means 
that  you  had  then  a  certain  facility.  Rut  that  could 
nr)t  have  been  your  beginning.  When  did  you  break 
your  shell.-'  What  chipped  or  cracked  your  egg  so  that 
your  particular  bird  emerged,  chirped,  and  finally  took 
flight?     That  was  what  I  wanted  to  know." 

"Is  that   what  you  are  after?"  asked  Mr.  Hamilton 


A   NATURALISTS   BOYHOOD  XIII 

Gibson,  "  From  my  baby  days  I  was  curious  about 
flowers  and  insects.  The  two  were  always  united  in  my 
mind.  What  could  not  have  been  more  than  a  child- 
ish guess  was  confirmed  in  my  later  days."  Then  Mr. 
Hamilton  Gibson  paused.  I  could  see  he  was  recalling, 
not  without  emotion,  some  memories  of  the  long  past. 

"  I  was  very  young,  and  playing  in  the  woods.  I 
tossed  over  the  fallen  leaves,  when  I  came  across  a 
chrysalis.  There  was  nothing  remarkable  in  that,  for  I 
knew  what  it  was.  But,  wonderful  to  relate — providen- 
tially I  deem  it — as  I  held  the  object  in  my  hand  a  but- 
terfly slowly  emerged,  then  fluttered  in  my  fingers." 

"  You  were  pleased  with  its  beauty,"  I  said. 

"  Oh !  It  was  more  than  that.  I  do  not  know 
whether  I  was  or  was  not  a  youngster  with  an  imagina- 
tion, but  suddenly  the  spiritual  view  of  a  new  or  of  an- 
other life  struck  me.  I  saw  in  this  jewel  born  from  an 
unadorned  casket  some  inkling  of  immortality.  Yes, 
that  butterfly  breaking  from  its  chrysalis  in  my  hand 
shaped  my  future  career." 

"  But  some  young  people  may  feel  passing  impulses,  but 
how  account  for  your  artistic  skill  and  literary  powers?" 

"As  to  the  art  side,  at  least  deftness  of  hand  came 
early.  I  had  the  most  methodical  of  grandmothers. 
Every  day  I  had  a  certain  task.  I  made  a  square  of 
patch-work  for  a  quilt.  I  learned  how  to  sew,  and  I  can 
sew  neatly  to-day.     I  knew  how  to  use  my  fingers." 

"Did  you  like  patch- work?"  I  inquired. 

"  I  simply  despised  it.  Sewing  must  have  helped  me, 
for  it  was  eye-training,  and  when  I  went  to  work  with  a 
pencil  and  a  paint-brush  I  really  had  no  trouble.  I  read 
a  great  deal.  I  devoured  Cooper's  novels  and  the  Rollo 
series  ;    but  there  was  one  special  volume,  "  Harris  on 


XIV  A    \All'RAl.Isr"s    noVIIOOD 

Insects,"  I  never  tired  of.  1  studied  that  over  and 
over  again.  It  was  the  illustrations  of  Marsh  which  fas- 
cinated me.  I  never  found  a  bug,  caterpillar,  or  butter- 
fly that  I  did  not  compare  my  specimens  with  the 
Marsh  pictures.  I  learned  this  way  much  which  I  have 
never  forgotten." 

"  Had  you  any  particular  advantages?" 

"Yes;  my  brother  was  a  doctor,  and  he  let  me  use 
his  microscope,  and  so  I  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the 
details  of  flowers  and  insects  that  escape  the  naked  eye. 
I  pulled  flowers  to  pieces,  but  not  in  the  spirit  of  de- 
struction, but  so  that  I  might  better  understand  their 
structure.  When  I  was  ten  I  had  a  long  illness.  When 
I  was  getting  better  I  was  permitted  to  take  an  hour's 
or  so  turn  in  the  garden.  That  hour  I  devoted  to  col- 
lecting insects  and  flowers.  On  my  return  to  my  room, 
what  I  had  collected  amused  me  until  I  could  get  out 
again  next  day  or  the  day  after." 

"  It  was  pleasure  and  study  combined,"  I  said. 

"  I  was  not  conscious  that  I  was  studying.  Then  in 
my  sick-room  I  began  to  draw  and  paint  the  insects. 
I  think  I  was  conscientious  about  it,  and  careful — per- 
haps minutely  so.  I  tried  to  put  on  paper  exactly  what 
I  saw,  and  nothing  else.  You  say  you  like  '  Professor 
Wriggler.'  I  drew  him  when  I  was  ten  or  eleven,  and  I 
could  not  make  him  any  more  accurate  to-day  than  I 
did  thirty  years  ago." 

"Were  you  encouraged  at  your  work?"  I  inquired. 

"  Yes  ;  once  I  was  much  pleased.  I  came  across  a 
curious  insect.  I  could  not  find  it  in  the  books.  I 
made  a  drawing  of  it  and  sent  it  to  a  professor  of  the 
Smithsonian,  asking  him  to  give  me  its  scientific  name. 
Back  came  by  return  mail  my  sketch,  and  under  it  the 


A    NATURALISTS    liUVllOOI)  XV 

Latin   name.     The   professor  wrote  me  that  if  the  peo- 
ple who  were  always  annoying  him  with  pictures  of  im- 
possible bugs  would  only  send  him  as  accurate  a  picture 
as  was  mine,  he  never  would  have  any  more  bother." 
"  Did  you  have  any  setbacks  ?" 

"Yes;  and  I  haven't  forgotten  it  up  to  to-day.  I 
was  always  collecting,  and  I  had  brought  together  every 
insect  I  had  found  in  my  neighborhood.  As  I  took 
them  home  I  pinned  them  in  the  drawers  of  an  old- 
fashioned  bureau.  In  time  the  whole  of  the  drawers, 
bottom  and  sides,  were  full  of  pinned  specimens,  and 
there  was  room  for  no  more.  I  had  saved  enough 
money  to  buy  a  cabinet,  and  I  went  to  New  York  and 
purchased  one.  When  I  returned  home  the  first  thing 
I  did  was  to  look  at  my  precious  collection.  When  I 
opened  a  drawer  there  was  a  confused  mass  of  wings 
only.  One  single  wretch  of  a  black  ant  had  got  in,  and 
had  passed  the  word  to  10,000  other  black  ants.  They 
had  eaten  the  bodies  of  my  insects  in  all  the  drawers. 
That  quite  broke  my  heart." 

"But  your  writing.  How  did  that  come  about?"  I 
asked. 

"  I  don't  think  that  you  can  develop  in  one  direction 
only.  You  must  unbosom  yourself.  You  are  forced  to 
tell  or  to  write  about  the  things  you  have  most  at  heart. 
When  I  was  a  small  boy  I  wrote  a  book  for  myself,  and 
called  it  '  Botany  on  the  Half-shell.'  The  first  thing  I 
ever  wrote  which  was  printed  was  an  article  for  one  of 
Messrs.  Harper's  publications,  and  I  made  the  pictures 
for  it.     That  was  my  debut." 

"  Then  your  work  went  hand  in  hand?" 
"  Certainly.     The  one  was  the  stimulant  of  the  other. 
We  all  grew  up  together.     The  days  spent  in  my  room 


XVI  A    NAIL-RALIST'S    HOVIIOOD 

when  I  was  ill  hcl[)cd  me.  I  think  I  studied  flowers 
then,  so  that  their  forms  and  colors  were  indelibl\-  im- 
pressed on  ni)-  mind.  When  I  was  older  I  made  a 
small  bunch  of  tlowers  in  wax.  Not  a  detail  escaped 
me.  I  made  moulds  of  all  kinds  of  leaves.  Once  I  put 
together  a  rose,  some  sprigs  of  mignonette  and  helio- 
trope in  wax,  and  gave  them  to  my  dear  old  friend, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher.  He  was  delighted  with  my  flow- 
ers, and  put  them  on  his  study  table.  Presently  Mrs. 
Beecher  came  in.  She  ran  to  the  flowers  and  broke  the 
rose  all  to  pieces." 

"  How  could  she  have  done  that?"  I  asked. 

"  It  must  have  been  with  her  nose.  She  wanted  to 
smell  the  rose." 

Then  Mr.  Hamilton  Gibson  showed  me  some  monster 
drawings  of  flowers — Brobdingnagian  ones.  The  flow- 
ers opened  and  closed  when  you  pulled  a  string,  show- 
ing their  interior  structure.  Here  were  bees  or  other 
insects,  and  they  flew  into  the  flowers,  collected  the 
honey,  and,  above  all,  the  pollen,  and  buzzed  out  again. 
He  explained  to  me  how  plant  life  would  perish  if  it 
were  not  for  certain  insects,  which  bring  a  new  exist- 
ence to  flowers ;  for  without  these  winged  helpers  there 
would  be  no  longer  any  varieties  of  flowers  or  seeds. 

You  will  see,  then,  that  in  tracing  the  beginning  of 
Mr.  Hamilton  Gibson's  career  what  I  mean  by  harking 
backward. 

I  am  certain,  too,  that  in  every  boy  and  girl  there  is 
something  good  and  excellent.  Like  the  flower  visited 
by  the  bee,  all  it  wants  is  impulse.  Then,  as  Mr.  Ham- 
ilton Gibson  explained  it  to  me,  will  come  the  blossom- 
ing, and  lastly  perfect  fruitage. 

Barnet  Phillips. 


MONG  my  somewhat  numerous  corre- 
spondence from  3'oung  people,  I  recall 
several  wondering  inquiries  about  a  certain  fat, 
floundering  "beetle,"  as  "blue  as  indigo";  and 
when  we  consider  how  many  other  observino- 
youngsters,  including  youngsters  of  larger  growth, 
have  looked  upon  this  uncouth  shape  in  the  path, 
lawn,  or  pasture,  will  speculate  as  to  its  life  his- 
tory, it  is  perhaps  well  to  make  this  floundering 
blue  beetle  better  acquainted  with  his  unappre- 
ciative  neighbors. 

What  are  the  lazy  blue  insects  doino-  down 
there  in  the  grass,  for  there  are  usually  a  small 
family  of  them.  With  the  exception  of  their  tin- 
selled indigo -blue  coat,  there  is  certainly  very 
little  to  admire  in  them.  But  what  they  lack  in 
beauty  they  make  up  for  in  other  ways.  There 
are  many  of  their  handsomer  cousins  whose  his- 


Library 
N.  C,  State  College 


FYK  srv 


tor\-  is  not  half  as  interesting  as  that  of  this  poor 
beetle  that  we  tread  upon  in  the  grass.  His 
neighbor  insect,  the  tiger- beetle,  running  hither 
and  thither  with  legs  of  wonderful  speed,  and 
with  the  agility  of  a  l1y  on  the  w^ing,  readily  es- 
capes our  approach ;  but  this  clumsy,  helpless 
blue  beetle  must  needs  plead  for  mercy  by  his 
color  alone,  because  he  has  no  means  to  avert  our 
crushing  step.  A  little  girl  who 
met  me  on  the  country  road  re- 
cently summed  up  the 
characteristics  of  the  blue 
beetle  pretty  well.  The 
portrait  was  unmistak- 


able. "  I've  got  a  fun- 
ny blue  bug  at  home 
in  a  box  that  I  want 
to  show  you,"  said  she ; 
"  he's  blue  and  awful 
fat,  and  hasn't  got  any  wings,  but 
wdien  you  touch  him,  he  just  turns 
over  on  his  back,  and  trembles  his  toes  and  leaks 
big  yellow  drops  out  of  his  elbows."  I  have  shown 
her  beetle — three  views  of  him,  in  fact — about  the 
natural  size,  one  of  them  on  his  back  and  "  leak- 
ing "  at  his  elbows,  for  such  is  the  infallible  habit 
of  the  insect  when  disturbed  —  a  trick  which  has 
also  Qjiven  him  the  name  of  the  "oil  beetle."  He 
is  also  known  as  the  indigo  beetle. 


Hut  of  what  use 
can  such  a  queer 
beetle  be  to  himself 
or  any  one  else — a 
beetle  that  is  not 
only  without  wings, 
but  is  so  fat  and 
floundering  that  he 
can  hardly  lift  his 
unwieldy  body  from 
the  ground,  and 
which,  upon  being 
surprised,  can  only 
"play  possum,"  and 
exude  great  drops  of 
oil  (?)  upon  our  palm 
as  we  examine  him  ? 

But  as  he  pours 
the  vials  of  his  wrath 
upon    us    he    would 


^n; 


^\^    ^{ 


4  EVK    SI'V 

doubtless  fain  have  us  understand  that  lie  was  not 
always  thus  unable  to  take  care  of  himself,  that 
he  was  not  always  the  clumsy,  crawling  creature 
that  he  now  is.  As  he  lies  there  on  his  back,  the 
yellow,  oily  globules  of  surplus  "  elbow  grease " 
swelling  larger  and  larger  at  his  leaky  elbows,  and 
one  by  one  falling  on  the  paper  beneath  him,  we 
may  almost  fancy  the  monologue  which  might  be 
going  on  in  that  blue  head  of  his. 

"Yes,  I  am  indeed  a  clumsy  creature,"  he  might 
be  saying,  as  he  stares  upward  into  our  faces  with 
fixed  indigo  eyes,  "  and  my  cumbersome  body  is 
a  burden.  Hut  I  was  not  always  what  you  now 
see.  Ah,  you  should  have  seen  me  as  a  baby ! 
Was  there  ever  such  a  lively,  acrobatic,  venture- 
some, pluck)'  baby  as  I,  even  when  I  was  a  day 
old  ?  Shall  I  tell  you  some  of  my  feats  ?  Every- 
body knows  me  as  I  am  now;  but  I  have  taken 
care  that  few  shall  learn  my  earlier  history.  It 
takes  a  sharp  eye  to  follow  my  pranks  of  baby- 
hood, and  no  one  has  been  smart  enough  to  do  it 
yet,  but  I  will  at  least  let  you  into  the  secret  of 
my  life  as  far  as  it  has  been  found  out.  I  am 
little  over  a  year  old.  I  was  born  under  a  stone 
in  a  meadow  last  April,  when  I  crept  out  of  a 
golden-yellow  case  so  small  that  you  could  hardly 
see  it.  I  believe  your  books  say  I  was  about  a 
sixteenth  of  an  inch  long  at  that  time.  Ah  !  when 
I  think  of  what   I  zvas  and  what  I  coii/d  do  then. 


THE   STORY   OF   THE   FLOUNDERINc;    IIEKTI.K  5 

and  look  at  what  I  am  noiv,  I  sometimes  wonder 
whether  that  lively  babyhood  of  mine  has  not  all 
been  a  mocking  dream. 

"  Do  you  wonder  that  I  am  as  blue  as  indigo, 
and  am  occasionally  forced  to   resort  to  my  oil- 
tank  to  still  the  troubled  waters  of  my  later  expe- 
rience ?     Well,  as  I  was  saying  (pardon  this  fresh 
display  of  tears),  when   I  crept  out  of  that  filmy 
egg-sac  I  was  just  ready  for  anything,  and  spoil- 
ing for  adventure.     I  found  myself  with  a  slender, 
agile  body  of  thirteen   joints,  and   three  pairs  of 
the  sprightliest,  spider-like  legs  you  ever  saw,  each 
tipped  with  three  little  sharp  claws.     Now  I  knew 
that  these  long  legs  and  claws  were  not  given  to 
me  at  this  early  babyhood  for  nothing,  so  I  looked 
about  for  something  to  try  them  on.     I  had  not 
a  great  while  to  wait,  for  as  I  crept  along  through 
the  grass  roots  beneath  the  edge  of  the  stone,  I 
heard   a   welcome   sound,  which   is    music   to    all 
babies  of  my  kind.      I  remembered  having  heard 
the  same  music   in   my  dreams  while  inside  the 
little  yellow  case,  but  now  it  seemed  louder  than 
ever,  and  in  another  minute  I  was  almost  blown 
off  my  feet  by  the  breeze  which  the  noise  made, 
and  a  great  black,  hairy  giant,  as  big  as  a  house, 
pounced  down  just  outside  the  stone.      He  had 
a  great    black   head,  and    six    enormous    legs   as 
big    round   as    trees.       Think    how   a   bumblebee 
would   look  to  a  wee  baby  not  half  as  big  as  a 


6  EYE   SPY 

hyjiluii  in  (inc  of  your  books!  Did  I  run  when 
I  saw  him  coming?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  I  just 
waited  until  he  came  close  to  me,  and  then  I 
jumi)ed  on  his  back,  and  put  those  eighteen  little 
claws  of  mine  to  good  use  as  I  crept  over  his 
great  spiny  body,  and  finally  found  a  snug  rest- 
ing-place beneath  it.  And  then  I  waited,  cling- 
ing tightly  with  my  clutching  feet.  In  another 
moment  I  had  begun  to  take  my  first  outing; 
and  did  ever  baby  have  such  a  ride,  and  to  such 
music!  After  the  bumblebee  had  remained  un- 
der the  stone  a  little  while  he  turned  and  went 


THE   STORY   OF   THE   IT.OUNDERIXC.    UEETI.E  7 

out  again.  No  sooner  did  lie  get  to  tlic  edge 
than  he  spread  his  great  buzzing  wings,  and  away 
we  went  over  the  world,  higher  and  iiigher,  miles 
high,  over  big  oceans  and  mountains.  I  could 
see  them  all  beneath  me  as  I  clung  to  the  under- 
side of  the  bee.  I  believe  I  must  finally  have  got 
dizzy  and  faint,  for  I  remember  at  last  finding 
myself  at  rest  in  a  queer  thicket  of  greenish  poles 
with  big  yellow  balls  at  the  top  of  them,  and 
great  giant  leaves  fringed  with  long,  glistening 
hairs.  They  told  me  afterwards  it  was  a  w^illow 
blossom. 

"  It  seemed  a  very  good  place  to  rest,  so  I 
dropped  off  from  my  bee  and  remained.  Every- 
where about  me,  as  I  looked,  the  air  was  yellow 
with  these  blossoms,  and  full  of  the  wing -music 
of  the  bees.  But,  as  I  have  said,  I  was  a  restless 
baby,  and  having  had  a  taste  of  travel  I  soon  tired 
of  this  idle  life,  and  began  to  get  ready  for  another 
ride.  My  chance  soon  came.  This  time  it  was  a 
honey-bee.  She  alighted  in  the  flower  next  to 
mine,  but  I  quietly  piled  over  and  clutched  upon 
her  leg,  and  was  soon  snugly  tucked  away  under 
her  body,  with  my  flat  head  between  its  segments. 
And  now  for  the  first  time  I  began  to  feel  hun- 
gry; and  what  was  more  natural  than  to  take  a 
bite  from  the  tender  flesh  of  this  bee,  so  easily 
available.'^  I  did  it,  and  liked  it  so  well  that  I 
adopted  this  bee  for  my  mother  for  quite  a  long 


8  EVK    SPV 

wliilc,  taking  many,  many  Umo-  rides  every  day, 
and  always  coming  back  to  the  prettiest  little 
house  on  a  bench  under  the  trees.  This  was  a 
sort  of  bee  hotel,  with  many  hundreds  of  guests. 
It  was  all  partitioned  off  inside  into  little  six-sided 
rooms,  and  the  walls  were  so  thin  that  you  could 
see  through  them.  Indeed,  I  soon  came  to  like 
this  little  home  so  well  that  one  morning  I  de- 
cided that  I  would  not  leave  it  again.  I  had 
begun  to  get  tired  of  my  roving  life.  I  saw  a  lot 
of  little  white  fat  babies  tucked  away  in  some  of 
these  little  rooms,  and  this  very  bee  which  I  had 
adopted  as  my  mother  was  engaged  in  bringing 
food  to  some  of  these  babies  and  sealing  them  up 
in  their  nests.  This  was  enough  for  me.  I  con- 
cluded to  bring  my  roving  habit  to  a  close,  and 
become  a  bee  baby  in  truth  ;  so  watching  for  my 
opportunity,  I  loosened  my  clutch  upon  the  moth- 
er bee,  and  dropped  into  one  of  the  little  rooms. 

"  Then  I  became  sleepy,  and  can  tell  you  noth- 
ing more  than  that  when  I  woke  up  I  didn't 
know^  who  or  what  I  was.  My  six  spider  legs 
had  gone,  and  I  had  a  half-dozen  little  short  feet 
instead  ;  and  instead  of  the  sprightly  ideas  of  my 
baby  days,  the  thought  of  such  a  thing  as  even 
moving  was  a  bore.  But  I  was  hungrier  than  ever, 
and  tlie  first  thing  I  did  was  to  fall  upon  another 
fat  youngster  who  disputed  the  room  with  me, 
and  make  short  work  of  him.   That  was  breakfast. 


'^N- 


t 


tu 

%>^% 


When  dinner- 
time came,  I 
found  it  right 
at    my  mouth.  \;h^^ 

That  busy 
mother  of  mine 

had  fully  supplied  my  wants,  and  packed  my  room 
full  to  the  ceiling  with  the  most  delicious,  fragrant 
bread  of  flowers  made  of  pollen  and  honey. 

"  Oh,  those   were    good    old    times,  with    all    I 
wanted  to  eat  all  the  time,  and  everything  I  ate 


KVK    SPY 


turning'  to  appetite!  Too  soon,  too  soon  I  found 
myself  getting  drowsy  again,  and,  I  can  only  re- 
member awakening  from  a  queer  dream,  to  find 
even  my  six  tinv  legs  gone,  and,  what  is  worse,  my 
nioutJi  also.  While  wondering  and  hoping  that 
this  was  but  a  troubled  vision,  I  was  plunged  into 
sleep  again,  and  dreamed  that  I  was  locked  up  in 
a  mummy-case  for  over  a  week.  And  now  comes 
the  end,  the  cycle  of  my  story.  From  this  night- 
mare mummy-case  I  finally  awoke  —  awoke,  and 
emerged  as  you  now  see  me.  Do  you  wonder 
that  I  have  had  the  blues  ever  since  at  the  memo- 
ry of  those  honeyed  days,  now  forever  fied  ?  In- 
stead of  sporting  aloft  in  airy  skyward  flights, 
I  am  now  a  miserable  groundling.  Instead  of 
sweet,  fragrant  bread  of  flowers,  I  am  now  forced 
to  break  my  fast  on  acrid  buttercup  leaves.  Hut 
I  shall  live  again,  with  joys  several  hundred  times 
multiplied,  live  again  in  my  children,  for  whose 
jolly  time  in  the  autumn  I  shall  soon  lay  my 
plans — golden  promises — here  in  the  ground  be- 
neath the  buttercup  leaves,  close  to  a  burrow 
where  lives  a  burly  bumblebee. 

"  But  I  have  not  told  you  all  of  my  history,' and 
will  leave  you  to  fill  in  the  blank  spaces,  even  as 
some  of  the  scientists  have  to  do." 


HE  most  recent  experience  of  m)^ 
own  with  the  mysterious  fox-fire  oc- 
curred a  short  time  ao^o  in  a  home- 
ward  drive  with  a  companion  from 
a  botanizing  expedition  about  twelve  miles  dis- 
tant. It  was  near  ten  o'clock.  The  sky  was 
overcast,  only  a  stray  star  of  the  first  magnitude 
now  and  then  peeping  out  from  between  the  rifts 
of  hazy  floating  clouds.  The  new  moon,  "  wi'  th' 
auld  moon  i'  her  arm,"  had  sunk  below  the 
western  hills,  and  so  dark  had  it  become  that 
the  road  ahead,  at  best  but  a  faint  suggestion, 
was  occasionally  lost  for  minutes  together  in  the 
deepened  gloom  of  the  overhanging  trees,  only 
the  keener  nocturnal  vision  of  the  trusted  horse 
affording  the  slightest  hope  of  keeping  in  the 
wheel-tracks. 

In  one  of  these  dark  passages  we  were  suddenly 
surprised  by  a  gleam  of  light  a  few  rods  ahead  to 


12  EVK   SI'V 

tlic  left,  and  in  a  moment  more  we  were  directly 
abreast  of  it.  On  many  })revioiis  night-journeys 
I  had  been  on  the  lookout  for  some  such  surprise 
as  this,  as  yet  only  rewarded  by  the  tiny  sparkle 
of  the  glowworm  in  the  grass.  But  here,  at  last, 
it  came  in  a  shape  that  I  could  not  have  antici- 
pated—  an  upright  column  of  phosphorescence, 
brilliant  at  the  upper  extremity,  and  more  broken 
below  for  a  space  of  several  feet.  The  brilliancy 
of  the  light  may  be  inferred  from  the  following 
query  and  its  answer: 

"What  is  that  light  yonder.?"  I  asked  my  com- 
panion. 

"  A  lantern  reflected  in  water,"  was  his  reply. 

The  mass  of  light  shone  verily  like  a  lantern, 
and  the  present  interpretation  was  somewhat  rem- 
iniscent of  a  previous  flickering  lantern  which  we 
had  seen,  with  its  accompaniment  of  great  mag- 
nified moving  shadows  on  barn  and  hay-stack,  as 
it  assisted  in  the  tardy  chores  of  a  whistling 
farmer  lad. 

But  this  light  was  of  a  greenish,  ghostly  hue, 
and  perfectly  motionless,  and  had  withal  a  certain 
weird,  uncanny  glare,  which  belongs  alone  to  fox- 
fire. It  was  impossible  to  locate  its  distance  from 
us.  It  might  as  easily  be  one  rod  as  five.  I  con- 
cluded to  investigate  its  source,  and,  groping  my 
way  through  the  dewy  bushes,  soon  confronted  it. 
It  seemed  to  glow  with  added  brilliancy  as  I  ap- 


FOX-FIRE 


13 


proached  it,  and  as  I  stood  face  to  face  within  a 
few  inches  of  it  no  vestige  of  material  surface  ap- 
peared to  sustain  it;  it  seemed  hanging  motion- 
less in  mid-air.  I  reached  out  my  hand,  wliich 
momentarily   intervened    like    a   black    silhouette 


against  the 
glow,  with 
which  it  soon  came  in 
contact.  Upon  further 
investigation,  this  proved 
to  be  the  contact  of  a  mere  prosaic  fence -post, 
which,  for  some  mysterious  reason,  had  been  sin- 
gled out  for  glorification  among  the  ten  thousand 
others  of  its  neighbors  and  transformed  into  a  pil- 
lar of  fire.  The  post  was  about  six  inches  in  diam- 
eter, its  summit  an  unbroken  mass  of  light,  which 
extended  in  more  or  less  broken  patches  below  for 
a  distance  of  six  feet,  thus  suggesting  the  effect  of 
the  rippling  elongated  reflection  of  a  lantern  in 
water  noticed  by  my  companion,  and  which  would 


14  EVE   SPY 

doubtless  have  been  so  accepted  by  the  average 
passing  observer  without  further  thought. 

Tlie  most  luminous  upper  portions  were  free 
from  bark,  the  exposed  patches  of  wood  below 
being  equally  brilliant.  Clutching  at  the  more 
available  part  of  the  post,  I  was  enabled  to  sink 
my  fingers  deep  into  its  decayed  fibre,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  tearing  off  a  long  fragment.  The  outer 
surface  of  this  particular  piece  had  been  covered 
with  bark  and  not  especially  brilliant,  but  the  cav- 
ity of  yielding  moist  fibre  thus  exposed,  as  well  as 
the  inner  surface  of  the  dislodged  piece,  poured 
forth  a  perfect  flood  of  greenish  light,  indicating 
that  the  damp  uncanny  fire  extended  to  the  very 
core  of  the  post,  which  was  saturated  with  the 
phosphorescent  essence.  I  laid  this  and  other 
fragments  in  the  back  of  the  carriage,  where  its 
glare  met  our  eyes  whenever  we  turned  to  look 
upon  it. 

Taking  it  beneath  the  lamp-light  upon  our  re- 
turn home,  it  resolved  itself  into  a  very  ordinary 
piece  of  yellowish  rotten  wood.  In  a  more  shaded 
corner  of  the  room  it  appeared  as  though  white- 
washed, and  upon  taking  it  into  a  closet  or  out 
into  the  night  again  its  flame  gradually  rekindled, 
as  though  feeding  upon  the  darkness,  until  it  ap- 
peared precisely  as  when  we  found  it. 

By  enclosing  the  specimen  in  a  tin  box  with 
moist   moss   I  was  enabled   to  prolong  the  efful- 


15 


FOX-FIRE 

gence  until  the   next  even- 
ing, but  it  had  entirely  dis- 
appeared  by    the    following 
night,    at    which     time     its 
original  haunt,  the  post,  was 
also    doubtless    lost   in    the 
darkness.      A  week  later  I 
again    passed    its    neighbor- 
hood in  the  late 
hours     without    -- 
the  slightest  hint 
of  its  presence. 

This  is  the  mysterious  "fox-fire"  or  "ghost- 
fire"  which  has  so  imposed  upon  the  imagina- 
tions of  credulous  country  folk  the  world  over, 
doubtless  a  conspicuous  factor  in  many  a  har- 
rowing tale  in   the   legendary  or   traditional    lore 

of    spooks    and 
goblins, 

I  remember 
the  breathless 
interest  with 
which  as  a  boy 
I  listened  to  the 
weird  story, 
whose  scene 
was  located  not 
far  from  my  na- 
tive  town,  of  a 


l6  EVE   SPY 

ghostly  light  that  HickLTcd  about  the  eaves  of  a 
certain  old  ruin  of  a  house  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  also  above  the  well  close  by  in  the  weedy 
waste  of  the  former  door-yard. 

The  light  was  seen  by  many  for  several  con- 
secutive nights.  It  fairly  glowed  into  a  halo  up 
from  the  wooden  curb  which  surmounted  the  well, 
where  it  was  \iewed  at  a  safe  distance  with  bated 
breath  by  a  curious  crowd  of  villagers,  not  one  of 
whom  would  have  dared  to  steal  up  and  surprise 
the  innocent  spook  in  its  haunt— doubtless  a  mass 
of  fox-fire  which  had  found  its  brief,  congenial 
home  in  the  decaying  boards  within  the  tottering 
well-curb.  Of  course  the  house  was  "haunted" 
for  evermore,  and  rustic  tradition  for  a  whole 
generation  was  rich  in  fabulous  tales  of  the 
"haunted  well,"  and  'there  was  serious  talk  of 
unearthing  the  nameless  mystery  which  lay  at 
the  bottom  of  it. 

A  certain  saw-mill  was  also  tenanted  by  a  simi- 
lar luminous  ghost  one  night  after  a  heavy  rain, 
but  the  shape  of  the  spook  in  this  case  was  so 
peculiar,  and  so  exactly  corresponded  with  the 
parallel  cross-boxes  of  the  old  broken  water-wheel, 
that  it  was  considered  harmless. 

Rut  it  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  phe- 
nomenon so  startling  and  inexplicable  to  the  rustic 
mind  should  be  associated  with  the  supernatural. 
One's   first   experience   with  fox-fire,  especially  if 


I 8  EVE   SPY 

lie  clianccs  upon  a  specimen  of  some  size,  is  apt 
to  be  a  memorable  incident. 

My  own  first  encounter  dates  back  to  the  age 
of  about  eight  years.  While  walking  through  a 
wood  at  night  I  chanced  upon  what  I  supposed  to 
be  a  large  glowworm  in  my  path.  I  picked  it  up, 
only  to  find  in  my  hand  a  hard  piece  of  dead  twig. 

A  later  experience,  which,  while  quite  startling 
for  a  moment,  was  robbed  of  its  full  terrors  by  the 
reminiscence  of  the  first.  As  in  the  former  case, 
I  was  returning  home  at  night  through  a  dark, 
damp  wood.  I  was  skirting  the  border  of  a  small 
runnel,  when  I  was  suddenly  brought  to  a  breath- 
less standstill,  apparently  confronted  by  the  glar- 
ing eyes  of  a  panther,  or  perhaps  a  tiger;  certainly 
no  cat  or  fox  or  owl  was  possessed  of  eyes  of  such 
dimensions  or  wide  interspace  as  those  which 
glared  at  me  from  the  dark  shadow  of  yonder 
copse.  But  in  a  moment  my  quickened  pulse  had 
subsided,  and  I  calmly  returned  the  greenish  phos- 
phorescent gaze,  observing  that  a  singular  acci- 
dent had  re-enforced  the  first  illusion  by  a  won- 
derful semblance  to  ears  and  outline  of  body,  in 
keeping  with  the  formidable  eyes. 

In  a  moment  I  was  attacking  the  foe,  my  hands 
stroking  his  rough  barky  forehead,  and  my  fingers 
penetrating  his  eyes,  which  proved  to  be  two  holes 
in  the  bark  of  a  fallen  log,  the  farther  side  of 
which  disclosed  a  brilliant,  luminous  patch  which. 


FOX-FIRE  ,Q 

as  I  invaded  it  with  my  hand,  proved  to  be  bare, 
exposed  wood.  Taking  hold  of  the  loose  bark,  a 
vigorous  pull  dislodged  a  great  piece  some  three 
feet  long,  at  the  same  time  liberating  a  glare  of 
greenish  light  from  the  exposed  surface  of  the 
log,  which  was  responded  to  in  sympathy  by  the 
inner  surface  of  the  slab  of  bark  in  my  hands,  in 
all  representing  about  six  square  feet  of  brilliant 
phosphorescence. 

I  carried  a  fragment  home,  and  upon  inspect- 
ing it  by  lamp-light,  found  it  white  with  thready 
mould,  resembling  the  so-called  "dry-rot"  of 
mouldy  timber  —  doubtless  the  mother  of  some 
well-known  fungus,  or  "toadstool,"  which  might 
have  been  discerned  upon  the  log  the  following 
day  had  I  chanced  thither. 

Hawthorne  in  one  of  his  books  records  a  re- 
markable personal  encounter  with  this  weird  fox- 
fire, and  one  which  cost  him  dearly.  He  was  on 
a  journey  by  canal -boat,  which  had  stopped  en 
route  for  a  brief  period  at  midnight.  During  the 
interval  he  had  stepped  ashore,  and  was  decoyed 
into  a  neighboring  w^ood  by  the  bright  glow,  which 
proved  to  be  a  fallen  tree  ablaze  with  phosphores- 
cence. 

In  his  surprise  and  interest  he  lost  all  ac- 
count of  time,  and  thus  missed  his  boat,  and 
was  obliged  to  "foot  it"  for  miles  on  the  mid- 
night  tow-path,  which  he  was  enabled  to  do  by 


20  EVK  srv 

the  aid  of  a  big  brand  of  the  tree  which  he  used 
as  a  flambeau. 

Ahiiost  any  damp  wood,  especially  after  a  rain, 
is  likely  to  disclose  its  fox-fire,  but  it  occasionally 
appears  under  circumstances  where  we  little  ex- 
pect it.  A  few  weeks  since,  having  occasion  to 
go  to  my  refrigerator  after  dark,  I  noticed  a  brill- 
iant glowing  object  upon  the  floor  beneath  it, 
which  I  found  upon  inspection  to  be  merely  a 
piece  of  damp  bread.  Can  it  be  that  the  yeast 
fungus  too  may  give  off  effulgence  with  its  car- 
bonic acid  at  its  whim  ?  or  was  the  light  traceable 
to  the  perceptible  odor  of  lobster  with  which  it 
had  evidently  been  previously  in  contact  ? 

Dead  fish  are  frequently  thus  luminous,  and 
brilliant  phosphorescence  is  often  an  accompani- 
ment of  decomposition  of  both  animal  and  vege- 
table matter.  A  few  decaying  potatoes  will  often 
light  up  a  corner  of  a  cellar  which  is  dim  by  day- 
light, and  an  instance  is  on  record  of  a  certain 
cellar  full  of  these  vegetables  giving  off  such  a 
flood  of  light  as  to  lead  observers  to  suppose  that 
the  premises  were  on  fire. 

Many  animals,  and  especially  fishes  and  insects, 
possess  luminous  properties.  The  familiar  exam- 
ples of  the  glowworm  and  fire-fly  hardly  need  be 
mentioned.  Then  there  are  the  big  lantern-flies, 
with  their  luminous  heads;  and  brilliant  snapping 
beetles  of  the  South,  with  their  two  glowing  head- 


FOX-FIRE 


lights,  so   effectively  employed   as  ornaments  for 
the  hair  and  otherwise  in  the  toilet  of  the  Cuban 


belle. 
From 


But  the  sea  is  the  home  of  luminous  life, 
the   diminutive   myriads    of    the    noctiluca, 
which  sets  the  sea 
aflame,  to  the  nu- 
merous   larger 
finny    tribes, 
«^.^  the  ocean  is 

peopled 


22  EYE   SPY 

with  animal  life,  which,  though  dwelling  in  depths 
scarce  reached  by  the  faintest  gleam  from  the  sun, 
swim  about  enveloped  in  their  self-illumined  halo. 

While  all  these  phenomena  come  under  the 
general  term  of  phosphorescence,  the  inference  of 
the  presence  of  phosphorus  is  incorrect ;  many 
substances  without  a  trace  of  phosphorus  in  their 
constitution  emit  light  with  equal  brilliancy. 

The  well-known  commercial  article  called  "lu- 
minous paint"  is  an  apt  example,  which,  while 
containing  no  trace  of  phosphorus,  glows  like  fox- 
fire at  night,  especially  after  having  been  exposed 
to  the  sun's  rays  during  the  day,  giving  forth  in 
the  dark  hours  the  light  which  it  has  thus  ab- 
sorbed, and  being  thus  of  utility  in  its  application 
to  clock  faces  and  match-boxes. 

Calcined  lime  and  burnt  oyster-shells,  in  com- 
bination with  certain  acids,  become  luminous  at 
night  by  the  similar  power  of  absorption  and 
transmission  of  light  vibration  which  is  supposed 
to  be  the  secret  of  much  of  the  so-called  phos- 
phorescence. 

But  fox-fire  is  believed  to  be  of  a  different 
nature,  more  chemical  in  its  character,  and  usu- 
ally emanates  from  a  fungus,  either  visible  in  the 
form  of  mould  or  toadstool,  or  existing  as  an  al- 
most invisible  essence  which  saturates  the  decaying 
wood, a  species  known  as  T/ielaphora  cerulea  being 
credited  with  most  of  the  luminous  manifestations. 


FOX-FIRE 


23 

Fox-fire  is  occasionally  put  to  a  cruel  utility  by 
hunters  in  association  with  the  "salt-lick"  for 
deer.  Salt  is  scattered  in  a  selected  spot,  and  a 
piece  of  fox-fire  adjusted  beyond  it  in  direct  line 
of  the  aim  of  the  rifle,  which  is  securely  fixed  in 
place.  The  sudden  obscuration  of  the  light  is  a 
sufficient  signal  for  the  still-hunter,  who  has  only 
to  pull  the  trigger  to  secure  the  game,  even  though 
the  latter  be  entirely  hid  in  the  darkness. 

The  more  common  examples  of  fox-fire  are 
small  bits  of  decayed  wood,  but  most  astonishing 
specimens  have  been  observed.  In  addition  to 
the  fine  example  mentioned  by  Hawthorne,  there 
is  an  authentic  record  of  a  single  log  twenty-four 
feet  in  length  and  a  foot  in  diameter  which  was 
one  mass  of  brilliant  phosphorescence. 


A  Homely  I  Teed 

7i.<ii/i 

Interest iiig    hloi^ ^ers 

HE  recent  article  from  my 
pen  on  the  "  Riddle  of 
the   Bluets,"  and   which 
showed    the    important 
significance   of   its    two 
forms  of  blossoms,  siior- 
gests   that   a  few   more 
similar     expositions     of 
the   beautiful  mysteries 
of  the  common  fiowers 
which    we    meet    every 
day   in    our   walks,  and 
which     we    claim     to 
"know"  so  w^ell,  may  serve 
to  add  something  to  the  in- 
terest of    our   strolls    afield. 
It  is  scarcely  fair  to  assert 
that    familiarity    can    breed 
contempt  in  our  relations  to 


A    HOMELY   WEED  2$ 

SO  lovely  an  object  as  a  flower,  but  certain  it  is 
that  this  every- day  contact  or  association,  espe- 
cially with  the  wild  things  of  the  wood,  meadow, 
and  way-side,  is  conducive  to  an  apathy  which 
dulls  our  sense  to  their  actual  attributes  of  beauty. 
Many  of  these  commonplace  familiars  of  the  copse 
and  thicket  and  field  are  indeed  like  voices  in  the 
wilderness  to  most  of  us.  We  forget  that  the 
"weed  "  of  one  country  often  becomes  a  horticult- 
ural prize  in  another,  even  as  the  mullein,  for 
which  it  is  hard  for  the  average  American  to  get 
up  any  enthusiasm,  and  which  is  tolerated  with  us 
only  in  a  worthless  sheep  pasture,  flourishes  in 
distinction  in  many  an  English  or  Continental 
garden  as  the  "American  velvet  plant." 

The  extent  of  our  admiration  often  depends 
upon  the  relative  rarity  of  the  flower  rather  than 
upon  its  actual  claims  to  our  appreciation.  The 
daisy  which  whitens  our  meadows  —  the  "pesky 
white-weed  "  of  the  farmer — we  are  perfectly  will- 
ing to  see  in  the  windrows  of  the  scythe  or  tossed 
in  the  air  by  the  fork  of  the  hay -maker.  The 
meed  of  our  appreciation  of  the  single  blossom 
becomes  extremely  thin  when  spread  over  a  ten- 
acre  lot.  How  rarely  do  we  see  a  bouquet  of 
daisies  on  a  country  table?  And  yet,  strange  in- 
consistency! the  marguerite  of  our  goodwife's 
window -garden,  almost  identical  with  the  daisy 
and   not  one  whit  prettier,  is  a  prize,  because  it 


20  EVE  spy 

came  from  the  "  florist's,"  and  cost  twenty  -  five 
cents,  with  five  cents  extra  tor  the  pot. 

A  certain  thrifty  granger  of  the  writer's  ac- 
quaintance was  recently  converted  from  the  error 
of  his  attitude  towards  the  "  tarnal  weeds  and 
brush."  He  was  one  of  the  tribe  of  bHnd,  mis- 
guided vandals  who  had  always  deemed  it  his 
first  duty  "after  hayin' "  to  invade  with  his  scythe 
all  the  adjacent  roadside,  to  "  tidy  things  up,"  re- 
ducing to  most  unsightly  untidiness  that  glo- 
rious wild  garden  of  August's  floral  cornucopia, 
that  luxuriant  tangle  of  purple  eupatorium,  the 
early  asters,  golden-rod,  vervains,  wild-carrot,  and 
meadow-rue. 

He  was  converted  in  the  sanctuary,  where  one 
August  Sabbath  he  beheld  by  the  side  of  the 
pulpit,  dignified  by  a  large,  beautiful  vase,  a  great 
bouquet  of  this  very  tall,  purple  thoroughwort, 
meadow-rue,  and  wild -carrot  of  his  abomination, 
and  which  had  actually  fallen  before  his  scythe 
on  the  evening  previous.  "  Well,  there  !"  he  ex- 
claimed;  "  I  didn't  realize  they  was  so  pretty!" 

The  beauty  of  the  commonplace  often  requires 
the  aid  of  the  artist  as  its  interpreter,  a  fact  which 
Browning  realized  when  he  expressed,  through 
Fra  Lippo  Lippi : 

"We're  made  so  that  we  love 
First  when  we  see  them  painted,  things  which  we  have  passed 
Perhaps  a  hundred  times,  nor  cared  to  see." 


A   HOMELY   WEED  27 

An  illustration  of  the  truth  of  this  axiom  was 
afforded  in  a  recent  incident  in  my  experience. 
Sitting  at  the  open  window  of  my  country  studio 
one  summer  day,  engaged  in  making  a  portrait 
of  a  common  weed,  a  friendly  farmer,  chancing 
"across  lots,"  seeing  me  at  work,  sauntered  up  to 
"pass  the  time  o'  day."  As  he  leaned  on  the 
window-sill  his  eye  fell  upon  the  drawing  before 
me. 

"  My!"  he  exclaimed,  "  but  ain't  that  pooty  ?" 

"  What !"  I  retorted,  "  and  will  you  admit  that 
this  drawing  of  a  weed  is  pretty  T' 

"  Yes,  your  draft  thar  is  pooty,  but  you  artist 
fellows  alliz  makes  em  look  pootier  'n  they  ouglit 
to." 

So  much  for  the  mere  attributes  of  manifest 
outward  beauty  without  regard  to  consideration  of 
"  botany  "  or  the  structural  beauty  of  the  flowers. 
The  "  botanist "  finds  beauty  everywhere,  even 
among  the  homeliest  of  Flora's  hosts.  But  in  the 
light  of  the  "  new  botany,"  which  recognizes  the 
insect  as  the  important  affinity  of  the  flower — the 
key  to  its  various  puzzling  features  of  color,  form, 
and  fragrance — every  commonest  blossom  which 
we  thought  we  had  "known"  all  our  lives,  and 
every  homely  weed  scarce  worth  our  knowing, 
now  becomes  a  rebuke,  and  offers  us  a  field  of  in- 
vestigation as  fresh  and  promising  as  is  offered 
by   the  veriest   rare  exotic  of  the  conservatory; 


28  EVE   SPY 

more  so.  indeed,  because  tlicsc  latter  are  strangers 
in  a  strange  land,  and  divorced  from  their  or- 
dained insect  affinities.  The  plebeian  dais)-  now 
becomes  a  marvel  of  a  flower  indeed — five  hun- 
dred wonderful  little  mechanisms  packed  together 
in  a  single  golden  disk.  The  red  clover  refuses 
to  recognize  us  now  unless  properly  introduced 
by  that  "burly  bumblebee"  with  which  its  life  is 
so  strangely  linked. 

The  barn  -  yard  weeds  need  no  longer  be  con- 
sidered uninteresting  and  commonplace,  because 
their  mysteries  have  not  yet  been  discovered,  and 
I  can  do  no  better  in  my  present  chapter  than 
to  select  one  of  their  number  and  redeem  it 
from  its  hitherto  lowly  place  among  them — one 
of  the  homeliest  of  them  all,  and  whose  blos- 
soms are  scarce  noticed  by  any  one  except  a 
botanist. 

In  my  initial  illustration  is  shown  a  sketch 
of  the  Figwort,  or  scrophularia,  a  tall,  spindling 
weed,  with  rather  fine,  luxuriant  leaves,  it  is  true, 
but  with  a  tall,  curiously  branching  spray  of  small, 
insignificant  purplish-olive  flowers,  with  not  even 
a  perfume,  like  the  mignonette,  to  atone  for  its 
plainness.  But  it  has  an  odoi'-  if  not  a  perfume, 
and  it  has  a  nectary  which  secretes  the  beads  of 
sweets  for  its  pet  companion  insects,  which  in  this 
instance  do  not  happen  to  be  bees  or  butterflies, 
but    most  generally   wasps    of    various    kinds,  as 


A.   First  Day's  Welcome- 
Stigma  at  the  Doorway. 


A'.   First  Day— Sectional  View. 


Second  Day's  Welcome- — Stigma 
bent  downward  beneath  two 
withered  Stamens  at  Doorway. 


C.  Third  Day's  Welcome.— Four 
Stamens  at  Doorway. 


D.    I  omili   Da\   — I'lll   nt   rin«er       It3 
Missii.n  l.iitilkd 


30  EVE   SPY 

these  insects  are  not  so  i)articular  as  to  the  c|uaH- 
ty  of  their  tipple  as  bees  are  aj^t  to  be.  But  the 
figwort  has  found  out  gradually  through  the  ages 
that  wasps  are  more  serviceable  in  the  cross-fer- 
tilization of  its  flowers  than  other  insects,  and  it 
has  thus  gradually  modified  its  shape,  odor,  and 
nectar  especially  to  these  insects. 

Let  us  then  take  a  careful  look  at  these  queer 
little  homely  flowers,  and  for  the  time  being  con- 
sider them  as  mere  devices  —  first,  to  insure  the 
visit  of  an  insect,  and,  second,  to  make  that  in- 
sect the  bearer  of  the  pollen  from  one  blossom  to 
the  stigma  of  another.  Here  we  see  a  flower 
with  three  distinct  welcomes  on  three  successive 
days. 

The  flower-bud  usually  opens  in  the  morning, 
and  shows  a  face  as  at  A,  which  must  be  fully 
understood  by  looking  at  the  side  section  shown 
at  A'. 

The  anthers  and  pollen  are  not  yet  ripe,  but 
the  stigma  is  ready,  and  now  guards  the  doorway. 
To-morrow  morning  we  shall  see  a  new  condition 
of  things  at  that  doorway,  as  seen  at  B  and  B". 
The  stigma  has  now  bent  down  out  of  the  way, 
while  two  anthers  have  unfolded  on  their  stalks 
and  now  shed  their  pollen  at  the  threshold.  The 
third  morning,  or  perhaps  even  sooner,  the  other 
pair  come  forward,  and  we  see  the  opening  of  the 
blossom   as   at   C.      Blossoms   in   all   these   three 


A   HOMELY    WEED 


31 


conditions    are    to    be 

found  on  this  cluster. 
A  small  \vas}D  is  now 

seen  hovering  about  the 

flowers,    and    we    must 

turn    our   attention    to 

him  as  seen  in  Figs,  i, 

2,  and    3.     The    insect 

alights,  we  will  assume, 

on  a  blossom  of  the  second  day 

(Fig.  i),  clinging   with    all    his 

feet,  and  thrusting  his    tongue 

into  the' beads  of  nectar  shown 

at    A'   and    B'.     He    now    brings    his    breast  or 

thorax,   or   perhaps    the    underside    of    his    head, 

against  the  pollen,  and  is  thoroughly  dusted  with 

it.     Leaving  the  blossom,  we  see  him  in  flight,  as 

at  Fig.  2,  and  very  soon  he  is  seen  to  come  to  a 
freshly  opened  flower,  which  he  sips  as  be- 
fore.   The  pollen  is  thus  pushed  against 
the   projecting  stigma,  as 
shown    at    Fig.  3,  and 
thus,  one   by  one,  the 
flowers    are    cross-fer- 
tilized. 

The  stigma, after  re- 
ceiving pollen,  imme- 
diately bends  down- 
ward   and    backward, 


32 


EVE   SPY 


as    shown    in    I)',   to  L;i\c  jilacc  to   the    ripening 
anthers,  and   shortly  after   the    hist  pair  of    them 

liaxe  shed  their  })()]- 
len  the  blossom,  hav- 
ing then  fulfilled  its 
functions,  falls  off,  as 
shown  at  D.  This  may 
be  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  third  day,  or  not 
until  the  fourth.  If 
not  visited  by  insects 
it  may  chance  to  re- 
main the  longer  time; 
but  more  than  one  tiny 
was{)  gets  his  head  into 
such  a  blossom,  and  is 
surprised  with  a  tum- 
ble, his  weight  pulling  the  bios-  _ 
som  from  its  attachment. 

The  result  of  that  pollen  upon 
the  stigma  is  quickly  seen  in  the 
growing  ovary  or  pod,  which  en- 
larges rapidly  on  the  few  suc- 
ceeding days,  as  in  E. 

Many  species  of  hornets  and 
wasps,  large  and  small,  are  to  be 
seen  about  the  figwort  blooms, 
occasionally  bees,  frequently 
bumblebees,   which    usually   car- 


A   HOMEI.V    WEED 


33 


ry   away    the    pollen    on    the    underside    of    their 
heads. 

Who  shall  any  longer  refer   to  the  figwort  as 
an  "  uninterestingr  weed  "  ? 


4 


^i^^^i 


r 


k 


HE  pretty  works  of  my 

fairy  and  his  companions  in 
''^M  mischief  are  seen  on  every 
hand  from  spring  until  win- 
ter, but  few  of  us  have  ever 
seen  the  fay,  for  Puck  is  no  myth  nor  Ariel  a  creat- 
ure of  the  poet's  fancy.  Their  prototype  existed 
in  entomological  entity  and  demoralizing  mischiev- 
ousness  ages  before  the  traditional  fay,  in  diminu- 
tive human  form,  had  been  dreamed  of.  The 
quaint,  bow-legged  little  "brownies,"  which  have 
brought  our  entire  land  beneath  the  witching 
spell  of  their  drollery,  can  scarce  claim  prestige 
in  the  ingenuity  of  their  mischief,  nor  can  the 
droll  doings  of  imps  and  elves  chronicled  in  the 
folk  -  lore  of  many  an  ancient  people  begin  to 
match   the  actual    doings   of    the    real,  live,  busy 


TWO    FAIRY 


'ONCES 


little  fairy  whose  works  abound  in  meadow,  \V'ood, 
and  copse,  and  which  any  of  us  may  discover  if 
we  can  once  be  brought  to  realize  that  our  imp  is 
visible.  Then  we  must  not  forget  that  ideal  type 
of  the  true  "fairy"  —  a  paragon  of  beauty  and 
goodness,  with  golden  hair  and  dazzling  crown  of 
brilliants,  with  her  airy  costume  of  gossamer  be- 
gemmed and  spangled,  her  dainty,  twinkling  feet 
and  gorgeously  painted  butterfly  wings.  And  we 
all  remember  that  wonderful 
wand  which  she  carried  so 
gracefull}^  and  whose  simple 
touch  could  evoke  such  a 
train  of  surprising  conse- 
quences. 

And    who   shall    say   that 
our    pretty   fay    is    a    myth, 

or  her  magic  wand  a  wild  creation  of  the  fancy  ? 
May  we  not  see  the  wonder- workings  of  that 
potent  wand  on  every  hand,  even  though  our 
fairy  has  eluded  us  while  she  cast  the  spell.? 
There  are  a  host  of  these  wee  fairies  continually 
flitting  about  among  the  trees  plotting  all  sorts  of 
mischief  and  leaving  an  astonishing  witness  of 
their  visitation  in  their  trail  as  they  pass  from 
leaf  to  leaf  or  twig  to  twig.  But  these  fairies,  like 
those  of  Grimm  and  Laboulaye,  are  agile  little 
atoms,  and  are  not  to  be  caught  in  their  pranks  if 
they  know  it,  and  even  though  our  eye  chanced 


36 


to  rest  on  one  of  thum,  it  is  doubtful  wlicthcr  we 
would  recognize  him,  so  different  is  the  guise  of 
these  real  fairies  from  those  invented  creatures  of 
the  books.  Once,  when  a  mere  boy,  I  caught  one 
of  the  little  imps  at  work,  and  watched  her  for 
several  minutes  without  dreaming  that  I  had 
been  looking  at  a  real  fairy  all  this  time.  What 
did  I  see?  I  was  sitting  in  a  clearing,  partly  in 
the  shade  of  a  sapling  growth  of  oak  which 
sprang  from  the  trunk 
of  a  felled  tree.  While 
thus  half  reclining  I 
noticed  a  diminutive, 
,^^M  black,  wasp -like   insect 

upon  one  of  the  oak  leaves 
close  to  my  face. 
The  insect  seemed  almost  stationary, 
and  not  inclined  to  resent  my  intru- 
sion, so  I  observed  her  closely.  I  soon  discovered 
that  she  was  inserting  her  sting  into  the  midstem 
of  the  leaf,  or  perhaps  withdrawing  it  therefrom, 
for  in  a  few  moments  the  midge  flew  away.  I 
remember  wondering  what  the  insect  was  trying 
to  do,  and  not  until  years  later  did  I  realize  that 
I  had  been  witnessing  the  secret  arts  of  the  ma- 
gician of  the  insect  world — a  very  Puck  or  Ariel, 
as  I  have  said — a  fairy  with  a  magic  wand  which 
any  sprite  in  elfindom  might  covet. 

The  wand  of  Herrmann  never  wrought  such  a 


TWO   FAIKV  srnxGKs  37 

wonder  as  did  this  magic  touch  of  the  little  black 
fly  upon  the  oak  leaf.  Had  I  chanced  to  visit 
the  spot  a  few  weeks  later,  what  a  beautiful  red- 
cheeked  apple  could  I  have  plucked  from  that 
hemstitched  leaf! 

This  was  but  one  of  a  veritable  swarm  of  mis- 
chief-making midges  everywhere  flitting  among 
the  trees  ;  and  while  they  are  quite  as  various  in 

their  shapes  as  the  traditional  forms  of  fairies 

the  ouphes  and  imps,  the  gnomes  and  elves  of 
quaintest  mien,  as  well  as  the  dainty  fays  and 
sylphs  and  sprites— there  is  one  feature  common 
to  them  all  which  annihilates  the  ideal  of  all 
the  pictorial  authorities  on  fairydom.  Neither 
Grimm,  nor  Laboulaye,  nor  any  of  the  masters  of 
fairy -lore,  seems  to  have  discovered  that  a  fairy 
has  no  right  to  those  butterfly  wings  which  the 
pages  of  books  show  us.  Those  of  the  real  fairy 
are  quite  different,  being  narrow  and  glassy,  and 
bear  the  magician  s  peculiar  sign  in  their  criss- 
cross veins. 

What  a  world  of  mischief  is  going  on  here  in 
the  fields!  Here  is  one  of  the  witching  sprites 
among  the  drooping  blossoms  of  the  oak.  "  You 
would  fain  be  an  acorn,"  she  says,  as  she  pierces 
the  tender  blossoms  with  her  wand,  "  but  I  charge 
thee  bring  forth  a  string  of  currants;"  and  imme- 
diately the  blossoms  begin  to  obey  the  behest, 
and   erelong   a   mimic   string  of  currants  droops 


38  EVE    SPY 

upon  the  stem.  Upon  another  tender  branch 
near  by  a  jet-black,  gauze -winged  elf  is  casting  a 
similar  spell,  which  is  this  time  followed  by  a  tiny, 
downy,  pink-cheeked  peach.  And  here  alights  a 
tiny  sprite,  whose  magic  touch  evokes  even  from 
the  same  leaf  a  cherry,  or  a  coral  bead,  perhaps  a 
huge  green  apple!  How  many  of  us  have  seen 
the  little  elf  that  spends  her  life  among  the  tan- 
gles of  creeping  cinque-foil,  and  decks  its  stems 
with  those  brilliant  scarlet  beads  which  we  may 
always  find  upon  them,  looking  verily  like  tempt- 
ing berries. 

We  see  here  about  us  swarms  of  these  busy 
elves  in  obedience  to  their  own  peculiar  mischiev- 
ous promptings.  What  whispers  this  glittering 
midge  to  the  oak  twig  here  to  which  she  clings 
so  closely  t  We  may  not  guess ;  but  if  we  pass 
this  way  a  month  or  so  hence,  what  a  beautiful 
response  in  the  glistening,  rosy- clouded  sponge 
which  encircles  the  stem  I  "  But  this  sponge  is 
not  pretty  enough  by  half,"  exclaims  a  rival  fairy. 
*'  Wait  until  you  see  what  yonder  sweetbrier  rose 
will  do  for  mer  Hovering  thither  among  its 
thorns,  she  imparts  her  spell,  and,  lo !  within  a 
month  the  stem  is  clothed  in  emerald  fringe, 
which  grows  apace,  until  it  has  become  a  dense 
pompon  of  deep  crimson  —  a  sponge  worthy  the 
toilet  of  the  fairy  queen  herself ! 

Who  shall  still  say  that   the   fairy  is  a  myth! 


TWO    FAIRY    SI'DXCES 


39 


/^  These  two  fair}' 
sponges  are  familiar 
to  us  all,  at  least  to 
those  of  us  who  dwell  for 
even  a  small  part  of  the 
year  in  the  country,  and 
use  our  eyes.  Indeed, 
we  need  go  no  farther 
than  our  city  parks,  or 
even  our  "  back  -  yard  " 
gardens,  to  find  at  least 
one     of     them,     for     the 


sweetbricr  is  rarely  neg- 
lected by  this 
particular  fairy. 
So  many  spec- 
imens of  both  of 
these  sponges 
have  been  sent  to 
me  by  "  Round 
Table"  corre- 
spondents and 
others  that  I 
have  begun  to 
"  :'  wonder    how 

^'^^^y    many  of  those 
"^^  other    young 

people  who  have  seen  them  and  kept  silence  have 
wondered  at  their  secret. 


40 


EYE   SPY 


The  two  fairies  which  are  responsible  for  these 
sponges  have  been  captured  by  the  inquisitive 
scientist,  and  have  had  their  portraits  taken  for 
the  rogues'  gallery,  and  now  we  see  them  stuck 


A.  One  of  the  points  detached. 

B.  Section  of  the  base. 

C.  D.    Cynips  emerging. 


upon  tiny  little  three-cornered  pieces  of  paper, 
and  pinned  in  the  specimen  case  as  mere  insects 
— gall  -  flies.  The  one  is  labelled  Cynips  semi- 
nator,  the  other,  Cynips  ros(B. 


TWO   FAIRY    SPONGES  4I 

And  now  the  prosaic  entomologist  proceeds  to 
supplant  fact  for  fancy.      This  gall-fly  is  a  sort  of 
cousin  to  the  wasps,  but  what  we  would  call  its 
sting  is  more  than  a  mere  sting.     Like  a  sting,  it 
seems   to   puncture   the   bark   or  leaf,  and   at  the 
same  time  probably  to  inject  its  drop  of  venom ; 
but  at  the  same  time  it  conveys  to  the  depths  of 
the  wound  a  tiny  egg,  or  perhaps  a  host  of  them. 
One  gall-fly  is  thus  a  magician  in  chemistry,  at 
least,  for  no  sooner  are  these  eggs  deposited  than 
the  wounded  branch  begins  to  swell  and  form  a 
cellular  growth  or  tumor  about  them,  the  charac- 
ter of  this  abnormal  growth  depending  uppn  the 
peculiar  charm  of  the  venomous  touch — to  one  a 
tiny  coral  globe,  to  another  a  cluster  of  spines,  to 
another  a  curved  horn,  and  to  our  cynips  of  the 
white  or  scrub   oak   a  peculiar  globular,  spongy 
growth  which  completely  envelops  the  stem,  some- 
times to  the  size  of  a  small  apple.     In  its  prime 
it  is   a   beautiful   object,  with   its   fibrous,  glisten- 
ing texture  studded  with  pink  points.     But  this 
condition   lasts   but  a  few  days,  when   the  entire 
mass    becomes   brownish   and   woolly,  which   fact 
has  given  this  insect  the  common  name  of  "  wool- 
sower." 

And  now  we  must  lose  no  time  if  we  would 
follow  its  history  to  its  complete  cycle.  If  we 
put  one  of  these  faded  sponges  in  a  tight-closed 
box,  we  shall  in  a  few  days  learn  the  secret  of  its 


42 


EYE   SPY 


being.     For  this  singular  mimic  fruit  which  has 
sprung  at   the   behest   of   the   gall  -  fly,  like  other 
fruits,  has  its   seeds  —  seeds  which  are   animated 
with  peculiar  life,  and  which  sprout  in 
a  way  we  would  hardly  expect.     With-  /'ji^ 

in  a  fortnight  after  gathering,  per- 
haps, we  find  olir  box  swarming  with 
tiny,  black  flies,  while  if  we  dissect 
the  sponge  we  find  its  long- 
beaked  seeds  entirely  empty, 
and  each  with  a  clean  round 
hole  gnawed  through  its  shell, 
explai«ing  this  host  of  gall- 
flies, all  similar  to  the  parent 
of  a  few  weeks  since,  and  all 
bent  on  the  same  mischief 
when  you  shall  let  them  loose 
at  the  window. 

The  beautiful  sponge  of  the 
sweet-brier   has    been    called 
into    being    by   exactly    simi- 
lar  means,  and    its 
hard,  woody  centre  > 

is    packed    full    of 


w  '^    ^    \^ 


Uiy 


..■«H»,. 


TWO    FAIRY   SPONGES 


43 


cells,  at  first  each  with  its  tiny  egg,  and  then  with 
its  plump  larva,  followed  by  the  chrysalis,  and 
at  length  by  the  emergence  of  the  full  -  fledged 
Cynips  roscc. 

This  sponge -gall  of  the  rose  is  commonly 
known  as  the  Bedegnar,  and,  like  all  other  mem- 
bers of  its  tribe,  as  with  the  familiar  oak-apple, 
was  long  supposed  to  be  a  regular  accessory  fruit 
of  its  parent  stalk.  Among  early  students  were 
many  superstitions  connected  with  the  Bedegnar, 
the  nature  of  which  may  readily  be  inferred  from 
its  other  common  name  of  "  Robin's  Pin-cushion." 


/^HE  casual  observer  may  perhaps 
have  noticed  that  interesting  law 
of  nature  which  governs  the  color- 
ing of  flowers,  and  which  confines 
the  hues  of  a  given  flower,  or  per- 
haps a  botanical  group  of  flowers, 
to  two  colors  and  the  combination  of  these  col- 
ors. The  three  primary  colors — red,  yellow,  and 
blue — are  rarely  to  be  seen  in  the  blossoms  of  the 
same  botanical  group.  Thus  we  observe  roses, 
hollyhocks,  chrysanthemums,  and  tulips  in  all 
shades  of  white,  yellow,  pink,  red,  and  crimson, 
even  almost  approaching  black,  and  numberless 
combinations  of  these  colors,  but  never  blue.  The 
same  is  true  with  dahlias,  zinnias,  lilies,  gladioli, 
pinks,  and  portulacas. 

On  the  other  hand,  flowers  which  are  notably 
blue — as  in  the  bellworts,  or  "  Canterbury -bells," 


GREEN   PANSIES  45 

and  larkspur,  which  vary  from  white,  through  all 
shades  of  blue,  to  purple,  pink,  and  even  reds — 
never  show  any  trace  of  yellow.  This  color  limi- 
tation of  blossoms  was  noted  by  De  CandoUe  early 
in  the  present  century,  who  classified  flowers  in 
two  series  as  to  their  hues.  The  first,  which  in- 
cluded the  yellow,  was  called  the  Xanthic ;  the 
second,  which  omitted  the  yellow,  the  Cymiic. 

World  -  wide  fame  and  a  comfortable  fortune 
await  the  florist  who  shall  produce  a  variety  of 
blue  rose,  tulip,  hollyhock,  or  dahlia,  or  a  yellow 
geranium  or  larkspur,  which  all  persist  in  their 
fidelity  to  their  particular  color  series.  And  yet 
nature  gives  us  occasional  exceptions  which,  how- 
ever, only  serve  by  their  contrast  to  emphasize  the 
universal  law.  Thus  we  see  the  water-lily  group 
— if  we  include  the  two  separate  orders  Nymphcsa 
and  Nelumbo — with  blossoms  of  pink,  yellow,  and 
blue.  The  water-lilies  of  this  latter  color,  allied 
to  the  Egyptian  yellow  lotus,  which  were  to  be 
seen  in  the  Union  Square  fountain,  New  York, 
last  summer,  were  almost  lost  in  the  azure  of  the 
sky  which  their  surrounding  waters  reflected,  and 
yet  they  clearly  had  no  right  to  include  blue  in 
their  gamut;  purple  or  red  possibly,  but  not  blue. 

But  this  is  not  so  remarkable  an  exception  as 
we  find  in  the  hyacinth,  in  which  the  three  pri- 
mary colors  are  to  be  seen  with  notable  purity — 
blues,  yellows,  and  reds — and  thus  with  possibili- 


46  EYE   SPY 

ties  of  almost  any  conceivable  color,  under  culti- 
vation and  careful  selection. 

Another  striking  exception,  and  one  which 
would  have  puzzled  De  Candolle  for  its  color 
classification,  is  the  columbine.  One  common 
species  of  the  Eastern  United  States,  Aquilegia 
canadensis,  is  of  a  pure  deep  scarlet  color,  as  every 
country  boy  knows.  If  we  seek  for  our  colum- 
bines in  the  far  West  we  shall  miss  this  familiar 
type,  and  find  it  replaced  by  another  species,  A. 
chrysantha,  of  a  fine  clear  yellow,  or  perhaps  by 
its  near  relative,  the  A.  ccerulea,  with  its  sky-blue 
corolla,  a  common  species  in  the  region  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  Columbines,  red,  yellow,  and 
blue,  are  thus  to  be  found  in  a  state  of  nature, 
and  we  thus  find  other  cultivated  forms  which  ex- 
tend from  a  pure  white  through  all  shades  of 
purple. 

The  pansy,  that  protean  offspring  from  lowly 
"johnny -jumper,"  occasionally  comes  very  near 
embracing  the  entire  gamut  of  color  to  which  its 
name,  Viola  tricolor',  would  seem  to  entitle  it. 
Blue  pansies  and  yellow  pansies  we  certainly  have, 
but  the  ruddiest  of  its  rich  wine  tints,  when  laid 
beside  the  red,  red  rose,  at  once  confesses  its  pur- 
ple, the  remnant  of  blue  which  it  cannot  absolutely 
eliminate. 

The  blue  rose,  blue  tulip,  blue  dahlia,  and  blue 
carnation  have  as  yet  refused  to  respond  to  the 


coaxing  arts  of  tlic  florist, 
but  he  has  at  least  suc- 
ceeded in  imposing  upon 
our  credulity  in  a  carna- 
tion pink  of  white, streaked 
with  peacock  blue.  Bou- 
quets of  these  uncanny- 
looking  blossoms  are  fre- 
quently to  be  seen  in  our 
city  flower-booths,  but  they 
smack  of  trickery,  and  the 
vendor  is  rarely  seen  to 
look  you  in  the  eye  as  he 
responds  "  new  variety  "  to 
your  inquiry  as  to  the  pe- 
culiar color. 

^Z    _    ~^~^'~        -  "Are  those  natural.?"   I 

--4  f  -^  heard  a  lady  ask  at  a  flower- 

stall   recently,  referring   to 
these  pinks. 
"  Sure,  madam,"  he  replied,  this  time  with  easy 
conscience.     "  They  were  picked  in  the  conserv- 
atory this  morning." 

But  as  he  folded  the  paper  carefully  about  her 
generous  purchase,  he  didn't  trouble  her  with  the 
details  of  the  subsequent  aniline  bath  to  which 
they  were  subjected,  and  of  which  they  bore  plain 
evidence  upon  close  scrutiny. 

But  if  we  are  to  resort  to  hocus-pocus  in  the 


48  EYE   SPY 

tinting  of  flowers,  there  is  an  artificial  method 
available  which  leaves  this  clumsy  artifice  of  the 
blue-green  pinks  far  behind,  and  which,  withal, 
affords  a  very  pretty  experiment  in  chemistry, 
albeit  presumably  more  enjoyed  by  the  operator 
than  the  victim. 

A  gentleman  of  the  writer's  acquaintance,  while 
visiting  his  sister  at  her  country  home,  noted  her 
fondness  for  pansies,  as  indicated  by  the  numer- 
ous beds  and  borders  of  the  flowers  there.  After 
expressing  his  appreciation  and  surprise  at  the 
endless  shades  of  color  in  the  bouquet  which  she 
was  gathering  for  the  library  table,  he  stooped, 
and  apparently  plucked  one  of  the  blossoms  from 
a  bed. 

"  Your  pansies  are  certainly  the  most  remark- 
able that  I  have  ever  seen.  Here  is  one  which  is 
truly  most  astonishing  in  color,''  he  remarked,  as 
he  handed  the  blossom  to  her. 

It  was  received  with  an  exclamation  of  amaze- 
ment, and  with  eager  glances  at  the  neighborhood 
of  the  bed  from  which  she  presumed  it  had  been 
taken.  "  Where  did  you  find  it .?"  exclaimed  his 
sister,  in  complete  demoralization.  "  Which  plant 
was  it  on  ?  Why,  I  never  sazv  such  a  pansy!  It's 
wonderful !  There  must  be  more.  I  never  heard 
of  such  a  pansy !  Do  show  me  where  you  picked 
it." 

"  I  got  it  from  this  plant  here,  I  think,"  replied 


GREEN   PANSIES  49 

the  young  man,  as  soon  as  he  could  be  heard  ;  and, 
stooping  carelessly,  he  plucked  another,  which 
proved  even  more  of  a  surprise  than  the  first,  so 
vividly  intense  was  its  color. 

The  first  specimen  was  a  dark  pansy.  The  two 
usually  deep  purple  upper  petals  now  appeared  of 
a  deep  velvety  peacock  blue.  The  remaining 
three  petals  were  pale  emerald  -  green,  bordered 
with  deeper  green.  In  the  second  blossom  the 
upper  pair  of  petals  were  now  transfigured  in  vivid 
emerald-green,  the  rest  of  the  flower  being  of  paler 
but  almost  equally  dazzling  brilliancy. 

The  demoralization  was  more  and  more  com- 
plete as  another  and  another  of  the  remarkable 
blossoms  was  rescued  from  its  obscurity,  always 
by  the  accommodating  young  man,  and  added  to 
the  growing  bouquet.  Neighbors  on  right  and 
left  were  quickly  acquainted  with  the  remarkable 
discovery,  and  a  gathering  of  excited  natives  soon 
assembled  in  the  parlor  to  view  the  new  floral 
sensation.  The  pansy-beds  were  soon  the  scene 
of  busy  commotion,  but  in  the  eager  search  for 
the  rare  blooms  fortune  seemed  still  to  favor  the 
young  man,  to  the  exasperation  of  several  of  the 
bright-eyed  young  ladies,  who,  of  course,  did  not 
happen  to  know  of  the  young  man's  occasional 
sly  recourse  to  a  certain  tumbler  concealed  near 

by- 

But  the  secret  soon  leaked  out,  and  the  victim 


50  EYE   SPY 

confessed  and  did  penance.  Had  he  realized  what 
a  commotion  his  innocent  prank  was  destined  to 
create,  he  would  not  have  yielded  to  temptation. 
But  his  sister  was  primarily  to  blame.  Why  had 
she  placed  that  bottle  so  conspicuously  upon  his 
wash-stand  ?  He  had  noted  her  fondness  for  pan- 
sies,  and  a  minute  later  had  read  "  Ammonia  "  on 
the  label  of  the  bottle,  and  association  of  ideas 
and  mischief  did  the  rest.  In  a  casual  stroll  about 
the  pansy-beds  he  had  then  gathered  a  dozen  or 
so  of  the  several  varieties  and  taken  them  to  his 
room.  Laying  a  piece  of  crumpled  paper  in  a 
saucer,  he  then  poured  about  a  teaspoonful  of  the 
ammonia  upon  it,  afterwards  gently  laying  the  pan- 
sies  in  a  pile  upon  the  paper,  and  thus  free  from 
actual  contact  with  the  liquid,  and  covering  the 
whole  with  a  tumbler.  In  two  or  three  minutes 
the  fumes  of  the  ammoniacal  gas  had  done  their 
work,  and  lo !  w^hen  he  removed  the  tumbler  his 
pansies  had  doffed  their  blues  and  purples,  and 
were  transfigured  in  velvets  of  all  imaginable  em- 
erald and  peacock  and  mineral  greens,  though  still 
retaining  their  perfect  shape  and  petal  texture. 

To  more  completely  confound  the  innocent  with 
this  experiment,  the  "operator"  should  suddenly 
discover  an  entire  plant  with  all  its  flowers  thus 
tinted  in  emerald — a  feat  which  may  be  accom- 
plished by  submitting  the  whole  plant  to  similar 
treatment  beneath  a  bell  glass  or  other  air-ti^ht 


GREEN   PANSTES 


51 


vessel  or  box,  in  which 
case  the  amount  of  ammo- 
nia used  should  be  pro- 
portionately increased. 
If  the  concentrated  am- 
monia is  employed,  a 
very  small  quantity  will 
be  sufficient. 

Flowers    thus   treated 


will    last 
in  an  unal- 
tered condi- 
tion for  several  hours, 
thougli  the  treatment 
is  really  injurious,  even  de- 
structive, to  the  tissues  of 
flower  as  well  as  plant. 


52 


EYE   SPY 


Various  other  blossoms  respond  in  their  own 
particular  virescent  hues  to  the  vapors  of  ammo- 
nia, as  the  reader  will  discover  upon  experiment. 

The  fumes  of  sulphur  confined  beneath  a  glass, 
as  from  a  few  common,  old-fashioned  matches,  will 
play  all  sorts  of  similar  pranks  with  the  colors  of 
petals.  A  little  experimenting  in  this  direction 
will  afford  many  surprises. 


all  the  insects  which  occasionally 
claim  our  attention  in  our  country 
rambles,  there  is  probably  no  ex- 
ample more  entitled  to  our  distin- 
guished consideration  than  the  ple- 
beian, commonly  despised,  but  ad- 
mittedly amusing  beetle  known  the 
country  over  as  the  funny  "  turablc- 
buo-."  As  we  see  him  now,  so  he  has  always  been — 
the  same  in  appearance,  the  same  in  habits ;  yet 
how  has  he  fallen  from  grace!  how  humbled  in  the 
eyes  of  man  from  that  original  high  estate  when, 
in  ancient  Egypt,  he  enjoyed  the  prestige  above  all 
insects — where,  as  the  sacred  "  scarabasus,"  he  was 
dignified  as  the  emblem  of  immortality,  and  wor- 
shipped as  a  god !  The  arch^ological  history  of 
Egypt  is  rich  in  reminders  of  his  former  emi- 
nence. Not  only  do  we  see  his  familiar  shape  (as 
shown   in   our  initial  design)  everywhere  among 


54  EYE   SPY 

those  ancient  hieroglyphs  engraved  in  the  rock  or 
pictured  on  the  crumbHng  papyrus ;  but  it  is  es- 
pecially in  association  with  death  and  the  tomb 
that  his  important  significance  is  emphasized. 
The  dark  mortuary  passages  and  chambers  hewn 
in  solid  rock,  often  hundreds  of  feet  below  the  sur- 
face, where  still  sleep  the  mummied  remains  of  an 
entire  ancient  people,  and  which  honeycomb  the 
earth  beneath  the  feet  of  the  traveller  in  certain 
parts  of  Egypt,  are  still  eloquent  in  tribute  to  the 
sacred  scarab.  The  lantern  of  the  antiquarian 
explorer  in  those  dark  dungeons  of  death  dis- 
closes the  suggestive  figure  of  this  beetle  every- 
where engraved  in  high  relief  upon  the  walls,  per- 
haps enlivened  with  brilliant  color  still  as  fresh 
as  when  painted  three  thousand  years  ago,  em- 
blazoned in  gold  and  gorgeous  hues  upon  the 
sarcophagus  and  the  mummy -case  within,  and 
again  upon  the  outer  covers  of  the  winding-sheet; 
finally,  in  the  form  of  small  ornaments  the  size  of 
nature,  beautifully  carved  on  precious  stones  en- 
closed within  the  wrappings  of  the  mummy  itself. 
What  other  insect  has  been  thus  glorified  and 
immortalized.?  For  the  sake  of  its  proud  lineage, 
if  nothing  else,  is  not  our  poor  tumble-bug  deserv- 
ing of  our  more  than  passing  attention  ?  An  in- 
sect which  has  thus  been  distinguished  by  an 
entire  great  people  of  antiquity  has  some  claims 
on  our  respect  and  consideration. 


MR.  AND    MRS.  TUMP.LE-RUG 


55 


But  aside  from  his  historical  fame,  he  will  well 
repay  our  careful  study,  and  serve  to  while  away  a 
pleasant  hour  in  the  observance  of  his  queer  hab- 
its. He  is  now  no  longer  the  awe-inspirino- 
sacred  scarab,  but  Mr.  Tumble-bug,  or,  rather,  "  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Tumble-bug,"  for  a  tumble-bug  always 
pictured  in  the  ancient  hieroglyph  is  rarely  to  be 
seen  in  its  natural  haunts.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tum- 
ble-bug are  devoted  and  inseparable,  and,  as  a  rule, 
vie  with  each  other  in  the  solicitude  for  that  pre- 
cious rolling  ball  with  which  the  insects  are  al- 
ways associated.  From  June  to  autumn  we  may 
find  our  tumble -bugs.  There  are  a  number  of 
species  included  in  the  group  of  Scaraba^us  to 
which  they  belong.  Two  species  are  particularly 
familiar,  one  of  a  lustrous  bronzy  hue,  with  a  very 
rounded  back,  usually  found  at  work  on  the  coun- 
try highway  in  the  track  of  the  horse,  and  the 
other,  the  true  typical  tumble -bug,  a  flat- backed, 
jet-black  lustrous  species  which  we  naturally  as- 
sociate with  the  barn-yard  and  cow-pasture.  The 
latter  may  be  taken  as  an  illustrative  example  of 
his  class,  and  his  ways  are  identical  with  those  of 
his  ancient  sacred  congener  and  present  inhabi- 
tant of  Egypt. 

When  we  first  see  them  they  are  generally  ma- 
nipulating the  ball  —  a  small  mass  of  manure  in 
which  an  egg  has  been  laid,  and  which  by  rolling 
in  the  dust  has  now  become  round  and  firmly  in- 


$6  EYE  srv 

crusted  and  smooth.  Let  us  follow  the  couple  iii 
their  apparently  aimless  though  no  less  expedi- 
tious and  vehement  labors.  They  have  now 
brought  their  globular  charge  through  the  grassy 
stubble,  and  have  reached  a  clear  spot  of  earth 
with  scattered  weeds.  Of  course  we  all  know 
from  the  books  that  their  intention  is  to  find  a 
suitable  spot  in  which  to  bury  this  ball,  and  such 
being  the  case,  with  what  astonishing  stupidity  do 
they  urge  on  that  labor!  Here  certainly  is  just 
the  right  spot  for  you,  Mrs.  Tumble-bug!  Stop 
rolling  and  dig!  But  no,  she  will  not  listen  to 
reason.  She  mounts  the  top  of  the  ball,  and, 
creeping  far  out  upon  it,  pulls  it  over  forward 
with  her  back  feet,  while  Mr.  Tumble -bug  helps 
her  in  a  most  singular  fashion.  Does  he  stand 
up  on  his  hind  legs  on  the  opposite  side,  and 
push  with  his  powerful  front  feet  ?  Oh  no ;  he 
stands  on  his  head,  and  pushes  with  his  hind  legs. 
As  he  pushes,  and  as  the  ball  rolls  merrily  on, 
Mrs.  Tumble -bug  is  continually  rolled  around 
with  it,  and  must  needs  climb  backward  at  a  live- 
ly rate  to  keep  her  place.  A  foot  or  two  is  thus 
travelled  without  special  incident,  when  a  slight 
trouble  occurs.  The  ball  has  struck  an  obstacle 
which  neither  Mrs.  Tumble -bug's  pull  nor  Mr. 
Tumble-bug's  push  can  overcome.  Then  follow 
an  apparent  council  and  interchange  of  Tumble- 
bug  talk,  until  at  length   both  put  their  shovel- 


^i; 


^^,r^-^    ;       nil    ;->v    ,  ; 


■'cte  ^* 


TA 


:.Cr  V 


58  EYE   SPY 

shaped  heads  together  beneath  the  sphere,  and 
over  it  goes  among  the  weeds.  It  is  soon  out 
again  upon  the  open.  Now,  Mrs.  Tumble -bug, 
everything  is  plain-sailing  for  you ;  here  is  a  long 
down  grade  over  the  smooth  clean  dirt!  Why, 
the  ball  would  roll  down  itself  if  you  would  only 
let  it ;  but,  no,  she  will  not  let  it.  She  pauses,  and 
the  ball  rests,  and  both  beetles  now  creep  about, 
shovelling  up  the  dirt  here  and  there  with  their 
very  queer  little  flat  heads.  Ah,  perhaps  they  are 
going  to  start  that  hole  which  all  the  books  tell  us 
about.  But  no ;  the  place  is  evidently  not  quite 
satisfactory,  both  of  them  seem  so  to  conclude, 
like  two  souls  with  but  a  single  thought.  Mrs.  T. 
is  up  on  the  bridge  in  a  jiffy,  and  Mr.  T.  takes  his 
place  at  the  helm ;  and  now  what  an  easy  time 
they  will  have  of  it  down  this  little  slope ;  but,  no, 
again;  tumble -bugs  don't  seem  to  care  for  an 
easy  time.  A  hundred  times  on  their  travels  will 
they  pass  the  very  best  possible  spot  for  that  bur- 
row, a  hundred  times  will  they  persist  in  guiding 
that  little  world  of  theirs  over  an  obstruction, 
when  a  clear  path  lies  an  inch  to  the  right  or  left 
of  them.  And  here,  when  their  labors  might  be 
so  easily  lightened  by  a  downward  grade,  what  do 
they  do  ?  they  deliberately  turn  the  ball  about 
and  hustle  it  along  2Lp  hill,  and  that,  too,  over  dirt 
that  is  not  half  as  promising.  Tip  they  go! 
Mrs.  T.  now  seems  to  have  the  best  of  it,  and  I 


MR.  AND    MRS,  TUMBLE-BUG  59 

sometimes  have  my  suspicions  whether  she  is  not 
playing  a  prank  on  that  unsuspecting  spouse 
working  so  hard  at  her  back,  for  he  now  has  not 
only  the  ball,  but  Mrs.  T.  as  well,  to  shove  along, 
for  the  most  that  she  can  do  is  to  throw  the 
weight  of  her  body  forward,  which  in  a  steep  up 
grade  amounts  to  nothing  as  a  help. 

But  if  she  is  imposing  on  Mr.  T.  in  thus  guid- 
ing the  ball  up  hill,  she  soon  gets  the  Roland  for 
her  Oliver.  Mr.  T.  is  put  to  great  extra  labor  by 
this  whimsical  decision  of  hers,  and  woe  to  Mrs. 
T.  when  that  little  chance  valley  or  inequality  of 
surface  is  reached.  Even  though  she  can  see  it 
coming  and  holds  the  wheel,  she  rarely  seems  to 
take  advantage  of  it  to  save  herself  or  her  ship, 
while  Mr.  T.,  going  backward  in  the  rear,  of 
course  cannot  be  expected  to  know  what  is  com- 
ing, nor  be  blamed  for  the  consequences.  With 
kick  after  kick  from  his  powerful  hind  feet,  united 
with  the  push  of  his  mighty  pair  in  front,  the  ball 
speeds  up  the  slope.  Now,  for  some  reason,  he 
gives  a  backward  shove  of  more  than  usual 
force  when  it  was  least  necessary.  The  ball  had 
chanced  upon  the  crest  of  a  slope,  when,  kick ! 
over  it  goes  with  a  pitch  and  a  bound,  and  Mrs. 
T.  with  it,  though  this  time  not  on  top.  Happy 
is  she  if  the  ball  simply  rolls  upon  her  and  pins 
her  down.  Such,  indeed,  is  a  frequent  episode  in 
her  experience  of  keeping  the  ball  a-rolling,  but 


60  EYE   SPY 

occasionally  the  tumble-ball  thus  started,  and  out 
of  the  control  of  her  spouse  at  the  rear,  may  roll 
over  and  over  for  a  long  distance,  but  never  alone. 
No  amount  of  demoralization  of  this  sort  ever 
surprises  her  into  losing  her  grip  on  her  precious 
globular  bundle.  When  at  last  it  fetches  up 
against  a  stone  or  stick,  and  she  assures  herself 
that  she  and  her  charge  are  safe  and  sound,  no 
doubt  she  immediately  mounts  to  its  crest  to  sig- 
nal the  lone  Mr.  T.  afar  off,  who  is  quickly  back 
of  her  again,  and  both  are  promptly  off  on  a  fresh 
journey.  And  so  they  keep  it  up,  apparently  for 
sport,  perhaps  for  an  hour. 

At  length,  when  they  have  played  long  enough 
— for  there  is  no  other  reason  apparent  to  homo 
sapiens — they  decide  to  plant  their  big,  dirty  pel- 
let. The  place  which  they  have  chosen  is  not 
half  as  promising  as  many  they  have  passed,  but 
that  doesn't  seem  to  matter.  Mrs.  T.  has  said, 
"  It  shall  go  here,"  and  that  ends  it. 

Then  follows  a  most  singular  exhibition  of  ex- 
cavation and  burial.  The  ball  is  now  resting  qui- 
etly on  the  dirt,  and  the  two  beetles  are  appar- 
ently rummaging  around  beneath  it,  trying  the 
ground  with  the  sharp  edge  of  their  shovel-shaped 
faces.  And  now,  to  avoid  confusion,  we  will  dis- 
miss Mr.  T.,  and  confine  our  observation  strictly 
to  the  female,  who  usually  (in  my  experience)  con- 
ducts the  rest  of  the  work  alone. 


MR.  AND    MRS.   Tr  MIU.K-l'.rc 


6i 


m 


^W^ 


WWS^s 


She  lias  evidently  found  a  sjDot 
that  suits  her,  and  we  e.xpect  her  to 
fulfil  the  directions  of  the  books 
and  entomological  authorities.    She 

•'t'lSr      #'      S"-  """"^^  ""^^^^  ''^  ^^^"^'^^  '^^^'^  ^'^^'  '^'^^ 

>^     J^,  1  /rt^>.       ^^'^''  ^'^^^  ^^^^'  ^''''^  "'^^'  ^^'  '^""^ 
^^■*'^'^'-'^  Ar-         .V  j^lj   j|-   ^p  again."      liut  we 

will   look    in 

vain  for  such 

o  b  e  d  i  e  n  c  e. 

Instead    of 

this  she  per- 

s  i  s  t  s       in 

ploughing 

around     be- 

>''^-  ^'^'^^^i^lt^i  »Ql        V         ball,  which 
'''-^w!T^r^-^r^^^^^^l^^y^^-:^.  seems  at  tunes  al- 

^^ly^C'H^^^^^^^'-"''t '^        most  balanced  on 
i  her  back,  until  all 

^^r'"^' -  the  earth  at  this 
.<i  point  is  soft  and  fri- 
'3?'\  able,  and  she  is  out  of 
sight  under  it.  Pres- 
ently she  appears 
again  at  the  surface, 
and  as  quickly  disap- 
pears again,  this  time 
going  in  upsidedown 


pry^ 


62  EYE   SPY 

beneath  the  ball,  which  she  pulls  downward  with 
her  pair  of  middle  feet,  while  at  the  same  time, 
with  hind  legs  and  powerful  digging  front  legs, 
she  pushes  outward  and  upward  the  loose  earth 
which  she  has  accumulated.  Visibly  the  ball 
sinks  into  the  cavity  moment  by  moment  as  the 
earth  is  lowered  for  a  space  of  half  an  inch  in  the 
surrounding  soil,  and  continually  forced  upward 
outside  of  its  circumference.  In  a  few  moments 
the  pellet  has  sunk  level  with  the  ground,  and  in 
a  few  moments  more  the  loose  earth  pushed  up- 
ward has  overtopped  it  and  it  is  out  of  sight. 
Still,  for  hours  this  busy  excavator  continues  to 
dig  her  hole  and  pull  the  ball  in  after  her,  with 
shovel  head  and  mole-like  digging  feet  scooping 
out  a  circular  well  much  larger  than  the  diameter 
of  the  ball,  which  slowly  sinks  by  its  own  weight, 
aided  by  her  occasional  downward  pull,  as  this 
same  loosened  earth  is  pushed  upward  above  it. 
The  burrow  is  thus  sunk  several  inches,  when  the 
beetle  ploughs  her  way  to  the  surface  and  is 
ready  for  another  similar  experience. 

The  remaining  history  of  the  ball  and  its 
change  is  soon  told.  The  egg  within  it  soon 
hatches,  the  larva  finding  just  a  sufficiency  of 
food  to  carry  it  to  its  full  growth,  when  it  trans- 
forms to  a  chrysalis,  and  at  length  to  the  tumble- 
bug  like  its  parent.  The  formerly  loose  earth 
above  him  is  now  firmly  packed,  but  he  seems  to 


MR.  AND    MRS.  TUMBLE-BUG 


63 


^#<X^/'': 


know   by    instinct    why    those 


powe: 


■ful  front  feet  were  triven 


•V^ 


..^-.^5'«-^'S 


^r<s 


to  him,  and  he  is  quickly 
'  working  his  way  to  the 
surface,  and  in  a  day  or 
so  is  seen  in  the  barn- 
yard rolHng  his  ball  as 
skilfully  as  his  mother 
had  done  before  him. 

Such  is  the  method 
always  employed  by  the 
tumble  -  bug  as  I  have 
seen  him.  And  yet  I 
have  read  in  many  nat- 
ural histories,  and  have 
heard  careful  observers 
claim,  that  the  hole  is 
dug  first  and  the  ball 
rolled  in.  Perhaps  they 
'-^   f""  vary    their    plan,   but     I 

doubt  it.     Here  is  a  mat- 
ter for  some  of  our  boys  and  girls  to  look  into. 


O  they  are  called ;  and  if  the  almost 
unanimous  rustic  opinion,  with  its  an- 
cient tradition  and  reliable  witness,  is 
to  be  credited,  such  they  are  in  very 
truth.  Indeed,  there  would  seem  to  be 
few  better  attested  facts  in  the  whole  range  of 
natural  history  than  the  pedigree  of  this  white  or 
brown  thread-like  creature  which  is  found  in  sum- 
mer shallows  and  pools.  Go  where  you  will  in 
the  rural  districts  and  it  is  the  same  old  story. 
"  They  come  from  horse-hairs,"  and  in  some  sec- 
tions they  are  destined  finally  to  become  full-grown 
water-adders.  It  is  commonly  no  mere  theory.  It 
is  either  an  indisputable  fact,  tested  by  individ- 
ual observation,  or  else  is  accepted  as  a  matter  of 
course,  much  as  Pliny  of  old  accepted  the  similar 
natural  history  "discoveries"  of  his  time.  He 
says,  for  example,  on  a  similar  subject,  "  I  have 
heard  many  a  man  say  that  the  marrow  of  a  man's 
backbone  will  breed  to  a  snake.  And  well  it  may 
so  be,  for  surely  there  be  many  secrets  in  nature 


THOSE   HORSE-HAIR   SNAKES  65 

to  US  unknown,  and  much  may  come  of  hidden 
causes." 

I  have  exchanged  much  comment  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  hair  snake  with  New  England  farmers. 
I  have  heard  it  claimed  by  one  rural  authority  that 
a  horse-hair  bottled  in  water  and  placed  in  the 
sun  will  become  a  snake  at  second  full  moon. 
One  prominent  Granger,  not  to  be  outdone,  went 
so  far  as  to  afhrm  that  an  old  horse  of  his  fell 
dead  at  the  edge  of  the  dam,  and  that  the  whole 
animal's  tail  squirmed  off,  and  the  pond  was  full 
of  hair  snakes  in  consequence.  It  becomes  al- 
most a  matter  of  personal  offence  to  the  aver- 
age countryman  to  question  the  truth  of  these 
statements.  The  hair  snake  is  2ifact — settled  by 
their  forefathers,  and  more  true  than  ever  to-day. 

But  snake  stories,  like  fish  stories,  are  always  to 
be  "  taken  with  salt,"  and  lest  some  of  our  younger 
readers  may  become  converts  to  the  rural  authori- 
ties with  whom  they  are  perhaps  associated  in  the 
summer  outings,  and  in  order  also  to  relieve  our 
lone-sufferino-  horse  from  this  outrageous  libel  on 
its  tail,  it  is  well  to  settle  our  horse-hair  snake 
story  once  and  for  all.  To  this  end,  I  doubt 
if  I  can  do  better  than  to  quote  from  memory 
a  certain  village  store  discussion  of  which  the 
everlasting  hair  snake  was  the  topic.  I  say  "  dis- 
cussion," but  this  was  hardly  the  proper  term  to 
apply  to  a  general  conversation  in  which  all  the 
5 


^  EYE   SPY 

parties  seemed  to  agree.  For  some  moments  it 
consisted  of  anecdotes  bearing  on  the  subject,  and 
each  of  the  group  had  furnished  his  item  of  inter- 
est supporting  the  accepted  theory  of  the  horse- 
hair origin  of  the  snake.  Only  one  member  of 
the  company  remained  to  be  heard  from,  Amos 
Shoopegg,  the  village  cobbler,  who  had  kept  silent, 
with  somewhat  sinister  expression  on  his  counte- 
nance as  he  listened  with  a  sort  of  superior  dis- 
dain to  the  various  wonder- 
ful accounts,  until  at  length, 
upon  the  recital  of  the  story 
of  the  dead  horse  in  the 
pond,  he  could  contain  him- 
self no  longer,  and  blurted  out: 
"  Well,  I  swan,  I  never  see 
sech  a  lot  of  dunceheels!  I 
never  hear  sech  fool  talk  since  I's  born.  They 
ain't  one  on  ye  thet's  got  enny  sense." 

"Waal,  haow  much  \\^v  yeu  gut?"  asked  the 
narrator  of  the  dead -horse  story,  testily.  '•'■Yeu 
never  see  a  har  snake  in  yer  life,  and  wouldn't 
know  one  from  a  side  o'  sole-leather  er  a  waxed- 
end  ef  it  wuz  laid  in  yer  lap." 

"  Not  know  'em }  I  guess  not,"  replied  Amos. 
"  I  know  more  about  'em  than  the  hull  lot  o'  ye 
put  together.  Not  know  'em !  Law !  hain't  I 
seen  'em  flyin'  over  the  meddy  by  the  hundreds 
in  hayin'-time  !" 


THOSE    HORSE-HAIR   SNAKES  67 

A  loud  and  long -continued  guffaw  concert 
greeted  this  surprising  statement,  a  result  which 
the  shrewd  cobbler  had  anticipated. 

"  We  give  in,"  remarked  one  sarcastic  snake  ex- 
pert, when  the  laughter  had  subsided.  "  We  give 
in.  We  don't  enny  on  us  know  thet  much,"  fol- 
lowed by  another  burst  of  derisive  laughter. 

"  Thet's  becuz  yeu  ornery  critters  hain't  gut  no 
sense,"  replied  Amos,  with  warmth.  "  Ye  beleve 
jest  wut  ennybody  tells  ye,  or  jest  wut  yer  gran'ther 
beleved  before  ye,  ez  though  j/^z^r  gran'ther  knowed 
any  more'n  a  hedge  fence  jest  becuz  he  hed  the 
misfortoon  to  be  yeur^  gran'ther.  My  gran'ther 
sed  so  tew.  But  what  on't .?  He  warn't  to  blame. 
He  didn't  know  no  better.  I  do.  Yeu  say  them 
snakes  come  from  hoss-har.  Like  nuff  they  ain't 
one  o'  ye  but  b'leeves  fer  a  fac'  thet  ef  yer  old 
har-cloth  sofy  wuz  put  to  soak  it  wou'd  all  squirm 
off  overnight.  Ye  see  these  ar  har  snakes  in  the 
hoss-trawf,  and  thet's  emiff  i^x  ye.  Immejetly  yeu 
hev  yer  'hoss-har  snake,'  'n'  you're  so  sot  they 
ain't  no  livin'  with  ye." 

And  so  he  went  on,  with  occasional  exclamatory 
or  chaffing  interruptions. 

"  Oh  yis  !  Yeu  know  all  about  'em,  jest  becuz 
ye  hed  a  gran'ther  who  wuz  a  dunceheels.  No- 
body kin  teech  ye  nothin',  but  /'//  tek  a  leetle  o' 
the  conceit  out  o'  ye  afore  I'm  done  with  ye.  Wut 
I  know  I  k7ww,  'n'  wut  I  say  I  kin  prove.     'N'  if 


68  EYE   SPY 

none  o'  yeu  idjits  hain't  seen  them  har  snakes 
a-flyin'  over  the  meddy  ez  I  sed,  then  ye  dont 
know  jiothin  about  'em.  I  tell  ye  I've  seen  'em  'n' 
caught  'em !" 

"  Say,  Amos,"  slyly  asked  a  jibing  neighbor  at 
his  elbow,  "  wut  did  ye  hev  in  the  hayin'-pail  that 
day  ?" 

"  Waal,"  drawled  Amos,  after  the  momentary 
laughter  had  subsided,  "  wutever  it  wuz,  it  'd  do 
yeu  a  power  o'  good  ef  yeu'd  take  one  long  pull 
on't.  It  would  be  a  eye-opener  fer  ye,  p'r'aps,  'n' 
yeu'd  lam  suthin'.  You've  ben  fed  with  a  spoon 
all  yer  life,  'n'  ye  swaller  wutever  they  give  ye 
without  lookin'.  Thet's  wut  ails  yeu.  Say,"  he 
continued,  trying  to  get  in  a  word  edgewise  in 
the  prevalent  hilarious  din,  "  you  idjits  er  havin' 
a  mighty  sight  o'  fun  over  this  'ere  !  I'll  give 
ye  a  chance  to  show  which  on  ye  is  the  big- 
gest fool.  Doos  any  one  o'  ye  want  to  bet  me 
that  ye  ain't  a  pack  o'  dunces?  Which  on  ye 
'11  bet  me  a  scythe  that  wut  I  say  about  these 
ar  flyin'  snakes  is  all  poppycut  ?  Come,  naow, 
I'm  talkin'  bizniss,  and  if  ye  ain't  a  lot  o'  cowards, 
p'r'aps  you'll  prove  thet  ye  ain't.  I  say  them 
snakes  wuz  a-flyin'  around  ez  fast  ez  grasshoppers 
all  over  the  meddy,  'n'  ar  flyin'  thar  naow,  like 
all-possessed,  'n'  I  kin  prove  it.  Naow  who  sez  I 
kaint,  and  will  wager  me  a  new  scythe  on't.'*" 

A  momentary  lull  followed  this  challenge,  but 


THOSE    HORSE-HAIR   SNAKES 


69 


the  bet  was  promptly  taken  by  several  of  the  com- 
pany, the  "  dead-horse  "  story-teller  being  the  first 
to  rise  to  the  bait. 

In  a  moment  Amos  had  left  the  store,  and  with- 
in a  half-hour  (barely  long  enough  for  him  to  have 
reached  his  home  and  returned)  he  reappeared 
with  a  box  containing  the  "  proofs  "  of  his  remark- 
able statement. 

He  won  his  bet,  having  introduced  his  sceptical 
hearers  to  the  two  prime  authorities  that  knew 
more  about  hair  snakes  than  all  the  rustic  wise- 
acres or  scientific  professors  put  together,  for  his 
box  was  filled  with  grasshoppers  and  black  crick- 
ets, including  one  or  two  specimens  specially  pre- 
served in  a  small  vial  of  alcohol,  to  show  the  par- 
asitic  snake  coiled  in  its  close  spiral. 


'JO  EYE   SPY 

It  is  reported  that  Amos  never  got  his  scythe, 
however,  the  "  dead  -  horse  "  story-teller  having 
backed  out  on  a  technicality,  claiming  that  Amos 
could  not  have  seen  the  snakes,  he  said,  and  that 
the  snakes  had  no  wings,  and  consequently  could 
not  have  been  seen  "flying"  over  the  meadow; 
but  the  cobbler  was  at  least  the  means  of  wip- 
ing out  the  hair -snake  superstition  in  the  vil- 
lage, and  even  to  this  day  he  is  heard  to  sing 
out  to  the  chaffing  group  at  the  village  store,  on 
occasions  when  he  is  crowded  a  little  too  far, 
"Who  sed  hoss-har  snake?"  He  laus^hs  best 
who  lauQrhs  last. 

There  was  nothing  in  the  outward  appearance 
of  Amos  to  indicate  an  intelligence  superior  to 
that  of  his  fellows,  the  secret  of  his  present  victo- 
rious position  being  found  in  the  fact  that  he  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  making  the  most  of  his  "  sum- 
mer boarders."  One  of  these,  during  the  present 
season,  had  been  a  college  professor  of  biology, 
who  had  enlightened  him  on  many  puzzling  mat- 
ters of  natural  history,  including  the  mystery  of 
the  hair  snake,  whose  horse-hair  origin  he  would 
once  have  maintained  as  stoutly  as  did  his  oppo- 
nents at  the  village  store. 

My  own  early  belief  was  influenced  by  the  pre- 
vailing country  opinion,  and  more  than  one  is  the 
horse  hair  which  I  have  put  to  soak  with  interest- 
ing anticipation.     By  a  mere   accident   the   true 


THOSE    IIORSE-HAIR   SNAKES 


71 


source  of  the  snake  was  discovered.  I  had  pro- 
cured a  box  of  grasshoppers  and  crickets  for  bait, 
numbering  some  hundreds,  and  once,  upon  open- 
ing it,  observed  two  of  the  thread-Hke  creatures 
entangled  like  a  snell  among  the  insects.  Further 
experience  while  baiting  the  hooks  with  the  grass- 
hoppers revealed  others  in  the  bodies  of  both 
crickets  and  grasshoppers,  which  seemed  in  no 
way  disturbed  by  their  presence. 

So  the  "  horse-hair  snake  "  may  be  written  down 
a  myth.  Its  existence  prior  to  the  time  we  dis- 
cover it  in  the  brook  or  puddle  has  been  spent 
under  the  hospitable  roof  of  the  insects  men- 
tioned, upon  escaping  from  which  it  seeks  the 
water  to  lay  its  eggs.  The  young  in  turn  seek 
the  grasshoppers  and  crickets  which  frequent 
their  haunt,  and  thus  the  routine  is  continued,  to 
the  possible  annoyance  of  the  grasshopper  and  the 
complete  mystification  of  the  rural  scientist. 


-^ 


OW  potent  and  abiding  are  the  remi- 
niscences of  early  youth  !  It  is  now 
some  thirty  years  since  I  discovered 
"  Professor  Wiggler,"  and  noted  his  peculiar  eccen- 
tricities. And  simply  because  I  chanced  first  to 
disclose  his  wiggling  identity  on  a  lilac-bush,  how 
irresistibly  must  his  comical  presence  assert  itself 
with  my  slightest  thought  of  lilac,  with  the  shape 
of  its  leaf,  the  faintest  whiff  of  its  fragrance,  or 
even  a  distant  glimpse  of  its  spray ! 

Yonder,  for  instance,  an  old  ruin  of  a  home 
closely  hemmed  in  with  the  well-known  bushes 
spots  the  wintry  landscape.  What  a  place  for 
Wigglers  that  will  be  next  summer!  Only  a  few 
days  since,  while  walking  down   Broadway,  New 


"PROFESSOR   WIGGLER"  73 

York,  I  paused  for  a  momentary  glimpse  of  a  fine 
display  of  spring  silks  in  a  shop  window,  when 
Professor  Wiggler,  without  the  slightest  rhyme  or 
reason,  suddenly  wagged  his  comical  head  across 
my  fancy,  for  my  thoughts  were  far  from  profess- 
ors and  entomology.  Following  a  frequent,  quiet 
pastime  of  mine,  of  tracing  the  pedigree  of  such 
vagrant  waifs  of  thought,  I  fell  to  pondering  what 
could  have  summoned  my  unbidden  friend,  and  I 
soon  discovered.  Why,  how  simple!  The  win- 
dow before  me  was  a  very  epitome  of  tender 
vernal  hues — blushes  of  pale  blossoms,  yellows  of 
pale  anthers  shadowed  under  petals,  and  quick- 
ened grays  of  bourgeoning  hill-side  woods,  warm 
pulsing  greens  of  budding  leaves,  each  fabric  bear- 
ing its  label  of  the  latest  color-fad  —  coral  gray, 
Chinese  pink,  primrose  ash,  old  rose,  and  yonder 
was  a  faded  purple  bearing  the  title  "  lilac,"  which, 
of  course,  by  its  own  irresistible  telegraph  through 
my  retina,  had  called  up  the  professor,  and  here 
he  was. 

Yes,  it  must  be  admitted,  he  is  a  rather  uncere- 
monious and  promiscuous  professor,  but  I  can 
nevertheless  recommend  him  to  our  young  people 
as  a  most  amusing  and  entertaining  character. 
As  I  have  said,  I  first  made  his  acquaintance  over 
thirty  years  ago,  and  in  spite  of  his  obtrusive  ways 
in  season  and  out  of  season,  I  nevertheless  renew 
our  actual  acquaintance   on   the  lilac-bush  every 


74 


EYE   SPY 


summer,  and   I  am  always  greeted  with  the  same 
expressive  "  wiggle-waggle." 

It  was  in  early  August  when  I  first  discovered 


him,  a  small  brown  and  white  crook-backed  creat- 
ure about  an  inch  long,  clothed  with  scattered 
hairs,  and  clinging  to  the  edge  of  a  leaf,  half  of 


"  PROFESSOR    WIGCI.ER  "  ^r 

which  he  had  eaten  to  the  mid  rib.  As  I  ap- 
proached he  ceased  eating,  and  began  to  wag  his 
upraised  head  and  body  vehemently,  and  I  prompt- 
]y  named  him  Wiggler,  subsequently  adding  the 
"professor"  for  special  reasons  which  I  do  not 
now  recall.  Careful  search  about  the  bush  led  to 
the  discovery  of  a  dozen  or 
more  of  the  caterpillars,  all  {      j 

about    the    same    size;    and  /    '^'^ 

such  was  their  novelty  among 
the  young  insect-collectors 
that  wigglers  now  became 
all  the  rage,  and  were  at  a 
premium  on  trade.  The  li- 
lac-bushes of  the  town  were 
scoured  for  caterpillars,  and 
there  was  suddenly  a  "cor- 
ner" on  wigglers.  A  Pro- 
fessor    Wiggler     was     now 

worth  two  bull's-eyes,  and  even  two  classical 
Polyphemuses,  or  three  Attacus  promctheus  co- 
coons were  considered  only  a  just  and  dignified 
equivalent  for  a  full  -  grown  specimen  of  the 
new  professor.  For  those  which  I  had  first 
found  proved  to  be  mere  infants.  As  they 
waxed  fat  and  healthy  and  lively  on  their  daily 
supply  of  fresh  lilac  leaves,  they  soon  reached 
tne  length  of  quite  an  inch  and  a  half,  and  their 
humps   and   zigzag   outline   were   proportionately 


76  EYE   SPY 

developed,  to  say  nothing  of  their  wigghng  pro^ 
pensities. 

How  well  I  remember  the  "whack!  whack! 
whack !"  from  the  inside  of  the  pasteboard  or 
wooden  box  as  I  entered  the  room,  or  chanced  to 
make  the  slightest  commotion  in  its  neighbor- 
hood, as  the  captive  pets  threatened  to  dash  their 
brains  out  in  their  demonstrations  at  my  approach. 
Opening  the  box,  I  was  always  greeted  with  the 
same  concert  of  whisking  heads,  the  action  being 
more  particularly  expressive  from  the  long  pro- 
jecting  lash  of  hairs,  an  inch  and  a  quarter  in 
length,  with  which  the  caterpillar's  head  was  pro- 
vided. One  singular  feature  of  these  hairs  had 
always  puzzled  me  in  the  earlier  life  of  the  cater- 
pillar, but  was  soon  explained  by  close  observa- 
tion. At  intervals  of  every  quarter  of  an  inch  or  so 
in  the  length  of  the  slender  tuft  we  find,  in  perfect 
specimens,  a  tiny  brown  speck — perhaps  three  or 
four — graduating  in  size  to  the  tip  of  the  hairs, 
where  the  atom  is  scarcely  visible,  or  generally 
absent.  A  careful  examination  of  their  shape  re- 
vealed the  fact  that  they  were  exactly  like  the 
heads  of  the  younger  caterpillars  in  all  their 
stages,  and  their  presence  and  successive  accu- 
mulation were  readily  explained  by  the  moult- 
ing habits  of  the  caterpillar,  which  is  common 
to  all  caterpillars.  By  these  telltale  tokens  we 
know  that  the  professor  has  changed  his  clothes 


"  PROFESSOR   WIGGLER  "  yy 

— let  US  see,  one,  two,  three,  four  —  perhaps  five 
times. 

When  he  first  emerged  from  the  egg  on  the 
lilac -leaf  he  was  indeed  a  tiny  atom;  his  head 
would  make  a  small  show  laid  u])on  our  page. 
When  about  a  week  old,  by  dint  of  a  good  appe- 
tite and  voracious  feedinor,  he  had  manaored  to 
"  outgrow  his  skin,"  as  it  were.  He  could  literally 
hold  no  more,  and  realizing  that  nature  would 
come  to  his  relief,  he  began  to  spin  a  tiny  web 
upon  the  leaf-stalk  in  which  to  secure  his  hooked 
feet  for  a  temporary  rest,  sleeping  off  his  dinner, 
as  it  were. 

He  is  now  a  very  quiet  and  circumspect  young 
professor.  It  were  indeed  a  dangerous  experi- 
ment to  wiggle  in  such  a  tight  suit  as  now  in- 
closes him,  so  he  remains  immovable  and  resigned. 
A  strange  process  is  now  going  on  in  his  physiol- 
ogy. Hour  by  hour  his  outer  skin  is  becoming 
detached  from  the  under  skin,  and  now  he  is  sim- 
ply inclosed  within  its  sac.  The  shell  of  his 
former  head  has  been  crowded  off  his  face,  as  it 
were,  and  has  slid  down  towards  the  mouth  of  the 
new  head  within.  Shortly  after  this  feature  has 
taken  place  the  imprisoned  caterpillar  becomes 
restless  to  burst  his  bonds,  and  a  quiet  working 
motion  begins,  which  gradually  forces  the  skin  in 
wrinkles  towards  the  tail  of  the  body,  of  course 
drawing  it  tighter  and  tighter  about  the  head,  and 


78  EYE   SPY 

with  it  the  connection  from  the  spiracles  at  the 
sides  of  the  body.  At  last,  with  one  final  effort, 
the  skin  behind  the  head  ruptures,  and  discloses 
the  new  skin  beneath,  and  through  the  opening 
thus  made  the  new  head  soon  appears,  and  the 
entire  new  suit  of  clothes  emerges  in  a  few  mo- 
ments. But  though  the  old  clothes  are  worked 
off  into  a  litde  shrunken  pellet  at  the  tail,  the  old 
head-shell  is  still  retained,  being  attached  to  the 
hairs  immediately  back  of  the  new  head,  and  thus 
retained.  Five  or  six  times  in  the  life  of  the  cat- 
erpillar this  same  process  is  performed,  each  per- 
formance leaving  its  token ;  so  that  our  "  profess- 
or" enjoys  the  unique  distinction  of  being  able,  in 
his  mature  years,  to  look  up  to  the  head  he  wore 
when  he  was  a  baby  or  youngster,  and  make  it 
useful,  too,  in  keeping  off  the  flies  as  he  ponders 
on  the  flight  of  time. 

But  this  is  not  all  our  professor's  peculiarities. 
One  day,  as  I  came  to  look  at  my  hump-backed 
pets,  I  discovered  that  most  of  them  had  shrunk 
a  full  third,  and  had  refused  to  eat  and,  what  sur- 
prised me  more,  refused  to  wiggle.  A  closer  ex- 
amination of  the  box  showed  that  while  they  had 
ignored  the  lilac  leaves,  they  had  been  gnawing 
the  pasteboard  everywhere  in  the  box,  even  per- 
forating it  with  a  number  of  holes.  The  cap- 
tives in  a  thin  wooden  box  were  similarly  affected, 
and  numbers  of  holes  were  to  be  seen.     What  did 


"  PROFESSOR   WIGGLER  "  jq 

it  mean  ?     I  had  been  expecting  daily  to  see  my 
full-gi-own  caterpillars  either  beginning  their  co- 
coons or  suspending  themselves  by  their  tails  in 
readiness  for  the  chrysalis  state.     Yet  they  had 
done   neither.      Their  time   had  evidently  come, 
but  they  were  not  satisfied   with  their  surroimd- 
ings,  and  would  seem  to  wish  to  escape ;  and  yet, 
having  gnawed  their  way  to  liberty,  deliberately 
remained  in  prison !     It  was  some  days  before  I 
correctly   interpreted   their  curious  contradictory 
actions,  and  as  I  remember  it  now,  my  hint  came 
from  a  spider-web  which  had  spread  its  catch  all 
beneath  a  lilac-bush,  and  upon  which  I  discerned 
a   number  of  tiny    balls    of   sawdust    which    had 
chanced  to  fall  upon  it.     Looking  directly  above, 
among  the  branches,  I  soon  found  a  wiggler,  not 
only  gnawing  the  wood  but  with  one-third  of  its 
body  in  a  burrow  in  a  twig  the  size  of  my  finger. 
I  had  observed  him  thus  for  a  few  moments  when  * 
he  began  to  back   out,  drawing  with  him  a  tiny 
ball  of  sawdust,  which  he  threw  out  with  a  slio-ht 
wiggle,  and  soon  resumed  operations. 

Leaving  him  to  his  work,  I  lost  no  time  in  tak- 
mg  the  hint,  and  my  box  was  soon  criss-crossed 
with  small  twigs,  and  my  remaining  wigglers  soon 
found  themselves  at  home  and  littered  my  box 
with  their  chip  pellets.  The  burrow  is  first  made 
diagonally  to  the  pith,  and  then  follows  the  centre 
for  about  two-thirds  of  an  inch.     I  remember  hav- 


^./^^^,/' 


ing  about  a  half-dozen  caterpil- 
lars thus  at  work  simultaneous- 
ly.      On    the   morrow,    when    I 
opened  the  box,  all  sio^ns  of  cat- 
erpillars and  bur- 
rows   had   van- 
ished.      Though 
I  looked  directly 
upon     the     spot 
where    yesterday 
I  had  surely  seen 
the  open  tunnel, 


PROFESSOR   WIGGLER" 


8i 


no  vestige  of  it  now  appeared,  and  its  where- 
abouts could  only  be  guessed  by  the  sHght  rose- 
colored  stain  which  the  caterpillar  had'' left  on 
the  bark  below.     What  had  happened  ? 

The  burrows  had  been  completed  in  the  night, 
and  the  caterpillars  had  retired  into  them,  back' 
ward  presumably,  and  then  spun  over  the  open- 
ing by  a  disk  of  silk,  which  they  had  finally,  or  in 
the  process,  tinted  the  exact  color  of  the  external 
surrounding  bark.  I  have  frequently  exhibited 
one  of  these  sticks,  with  its  inclosed  caterpillar, 
to  curious  friends,  who  were  unable  to  locate,  with- 
out long  and  careful  scrutiny,  the  mysterious  cur- 
tain. ^  The  twig,  dried  in  a  mild  oven  so  as  to  kill 
the  inclosed  caterpillar,  or  with  its  farther  side 
split  off  for  his  removal,  would  serve  as  an  inter- 
esting permanent  specimen, 
the  delicate  disk  being  oth- 
erwise ruptured  by  the  final 
escape  of  the  moth. 

All  of  mine  appeared  in 
the  first  week  of  July  of  the 
next  year.  They  were  small, 
for  the  size  of  the  caterpillar,  yellowish -white 
"  millers,"  the  fore  wings  beautifully  mottled 
and  banded  with  brown,  and  each  with  three 
conspicuous  round  spots  of  dull  red,  which  feat- 
ure has  secured  the  insect  its  specific  name 
of  "  Trisignata  "  —  Gramatophora    trisig7iata   be- 


82  EYE   SPY 

ing    the     name     of     our     professor    in     learned 
circles. 

His  burrowing  habits  do  not  seem  to  be  gener- 
ally known,  the  only  mention  of  which  I  have 
chanced  to  observe  merely  alluding  to  the  fact 
that  the  "  caterpillar  has  the  unusual  power  of 
boring  very  smooth  cylindrical  holes  in  solid  pine 
wood."  But  Professor  Wiggler  does  not  bore 
wood  for  a  pastime,  as  we  have  seen. 


Ci 


F  I  have   been   asked 

once    I    have    been 

asked  fifty  times  to  explain 

the    secret    of    that    frothy, 

bubbly    mass    which    clings 

to  the  stems  of  grasses 


and  weeds  in  the  sum- 
mer meadows.      Surely 
no  one   of   our   readers 
who  has   spent  a  June 
or  July  in   the  country 
can   have   failed   to  ob- 
serve   it.       Even    as    I 
write,  having  just  returned  to  my  studio 
by  a  short  cut  across  a  meadow  near  by, 
my  nether  garments  plainly  show  that  I 
must  have  come  in  contact  with  five  hun- 


84  EYE   SPY 

dred  of  them  during  these  few  rods.  In  the  height 
of  its  season  this  frothy  nuisance  monopohzes 
many  a  meadow.  No  one,  unless  most  ordinarily 
clad,  would  care  to  wade  through  its  slimy  haunt. 
Certainly  no  stroller  in  his  "Sunday  best," having 
once  experienced  its  unpleasant  famiharity,  would 
willingly  give  it  a  second  opportunity. 

Its  name,  I  find,  varies  in  different  localities,  but 
all,  for  obvious  reasons,  have  the  same  salivary 
significance.  In  various  parts  of  New  England, 
for  instance,  it  is  known  as  cow -spit.  In  the 
southern  States  the  snake  is  held  responsible  for 
it,  as  is  shown  in  the  popular  name  of  snake-spit. 
I  have  frequently  heard  it  called  frog-spit,  cuckoo- 
spit,  toad-spit,  and  sheep-spit,  and  doubtless  many 
other  local  terms  of  the  same  sort  may  be  found. 
.The  cow -spittle  theory,  however,  seems  to  have 
the  greatest  number  of  converts.  Let  me,  at 
least,  hasten  to  expose  this  miserable  slander  on 
"  our  rural  divinity."  Have,  then,  our  cows  noth- 
ing better  to  do  than  to  go  expectorating  all  over 
the  meadows,  road -sides,  and  hay- fields.?  And 
how  busy,  indeed,  they  must  have  been  to  so 
thoroughly  cover  "the  ground,  to  say  nothing  of 
their  surprising  aim,  every  glistening  cluster  of 
bubbles  being  landed  not  helter-skelter  on  the 
leaves  and  flowers,  but  only  on  the  main  stems 
of  the  various  plants  upon  which  they  are  found ! 
Even  in  this  little  field  outside  my  studio  window, 


"  COW-SriT,  SNAKE-SPIT,  AND    FROG-SPIT  "  85 

which  is  thus  generously  moistened,  what  a  task ! 
Why,  it  would  certainly  have  taken  at  least  ten 
cows  in  industrious  expectoration  to  have  left  it  so 
profusely  decorated  as  now ;  but  the  fact  is,  there 
is  not,  nor  has  there  been,  a  single  cow  in  the  field. 

Only  a  few  weeks  ago  1  received  a  letter  from 
an  Ohio  boy  who,  among  other  things,  wanted  to 
know  what  those  slimy  "  gobs "  on  alders  came 
from.  He  said  they  called  them  "snake -spit" 
out  there,  but  that  he  had  seen  lots  of  them  high- 
er than  any  snake  could  get,  unless  it  was  a 
"  racer,"  meaning  the  blacksnake,  which,  as  is  well 
known,  is  fond  of  climbing  trees  and  bushes. 
And  later  came  a  letter  from  a  lady  in  Lewiston, 
North  Carolina,  who  had  looked  deeper  into  the 
matter,  and  whose  inquiry  throws  a  little  light  on 
the  subject.     She  writes  as  follows  : 

"  An  old  subscriber  to  '  Harper's  Young  Peo- 
ple '  desires  to  express  the  pleasure  which  your 
articles  have  afforded.  ...  I  have  just  finished  the 
last,  and  have  been  out  to  examine  the  faded 
primroses,  but  only  a  long-legged  green  spider  re- 
warded my  search.  Too  late  for  our  season." 
The  readers  of  "  Young  People "  will  recall  my 
article  about  the  beautiful  rosy  moth  which  lives 
in  the  faded  evening  primrose,  and  which  was  the 
quest  of  the  above  writer,  who  further  continues: 
"  I  do  not  think  you  have  written  about  what  is 
called   here   'snake's -spittle,'  a  frothy  exudation, 


86  EYE   SPY 

perfectly  white,  surrounding  a  small  speckled  bee- 
tle (I  suppose).  I  found  several  on  my  chrysan- 
themums about  two  weeks  ago,  but  they  seem  to 
have  disappeared  now." 

This  supposed  "  small  speckled  beetle  "  lets  out 
the  secret  of  our  "cow-spittle."  The  old  cow  is 
acquitted,  and  also  the  snake,  who  has  enough 
mischief  to  answer  for. 

Each  of  these  masses  of  bubbles  is  seen  to  sur- 
round the  stem,  upon  which  it  clings,  out  of  con- 
sideration to  the  popular  tradition,  spitted  through 
the  centre,  as  it  were,  with  its  culm  of  grass  or 
branch  of  bramble  or  weed.  But  the  true  expec- 
torator  is  within,  laved  in  his  own  froth,  his  beak 
embedded  in  the  juicy  stem,  and  his  suds  factory 
continually  at  work.  We  have  only  to  blow  or 
scrape  off  the  white  bubbles,  and  we  shall  disclose 
him,  even  though  he  makes  considerable  effort  to 
dodge  out  of  sight,  either  in  the  remnant  froth  or 
around  the  stem.  But  it  is  not  a  beetle  that  we 
at  last  bring  to  view.  It  would  be  hard,  indeed, 
for  any  one  but  a  naturalist  to  decide  on  so  short 
an  acquaintance  precisely  what  to  call  him.  He 
is  green  and  speckled  in  color,  anywhere  from  a 
quarter  to  half  an  inch  in  length,  depending  upon 
his  age,  and  somewhat  to  be  anticipated  in  the 
extent  of  his  show  of  suds.  He  is  wide  of  brow, 
has  rather  prominent  eyes,  and  tapers  off  some- 
what wedge-shaped  behind. 


To  the  bug  ' 
student  these  features  are 
very  significant,  and  he  is 
not  long  in  placing  the 
creature  among  his  proper  kin- 
dred. He  has  a  sucking  beak, 
which  connects  him  with  the 
tribe  of  bugs,  and  other  features 
ally  him  to  the  cicada,  a  humble 
though  accomplished  relative  of 
the  buzzing  harvest-fly  or  hornet, 
cool  contentment  here  in  his  aerated  bath,  but  he 
has  not  thus  put  himself  to  soak  as  the  end  and  aim 
of  his  existence.  Erelong  he  will  graduate  from 
these  moist  surroundings,  and  we  shall  see  quite 
another  sort  of  being,  whom  we  would  not  dare  to 
affront  by  the  mere  mention  of  such  an  ignomini- 


He  dwells  in 


88  EYE    SPY 

ous,  foamy  existence.  Here  is  one  of  them,  which 
has  just  flown  in  around  our  evening  lamp,  and 
has  settled  upon  my  paper  as  I  write.  Not  a 
strange  coincidence,  by  any  means,  for  others  very 
like  him  have  been  there  before  when  I  have  been 
writing  on  various  other  topics,  and  are  the  cer- 
tain representatives  of  that  nocturnal  swarm  which 
is  always  attracted  by  the  light. 

What  a  pretty  atom  he  is  as  he  rests  here  on 
my  paper,  clad  in  his  bright  emerald  green,  and 
only  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  length !  Let 
us  catch  him  for  our  cabinet.  But  this  is  not  so 
simple,  for,  like  the  proverbial  flea,  I  put  my  fin- 
ger on  him,  and  he  isn't  there,  but  is  to  be  seen 
yonder,  at  the  farther  edge  of  the  table,  the  in- 
stant I  lift  my  finger-tip.  And  there  are  others 
like  him  scattered  about  me  beneath  the  lamp, 
one  especially  with  four  brilliant  scarlet  bands  on 
his  bright  green  wings,  a  near  relative,  though  I 
am  not  sure  at  this  moment  whether  he  dates 
back  to  such  a  soaking  as  his  little  emerald  fellow 
just  described.  We  must  be  quick  indeed  to 
catch  him,  he  is  so  alert ;  and  while  his  entire 
visible  emerald  anatomy  consists  of  a  pair  of  nim- 
ble wings,  no  one  would  guess  it  now,  for  he  cer- 
tainly does  not  use  them  as  he  speeds  here  and 
there  on  our  table.  No,  he  has  still  another  re- 
source in  those  powerful  hind  legs  of  his,  which 
soon   take  him   out   of  our    reach  when  he   con- 


"COW-SPIT,  SNAKE-SPIT,  AND    FROG-SPIT  "  89 

eludes  to  trust  the  spring.  Here,  then,  is  one  of 
the  host  of  midgets  who  are  responsible  for  our 
soiled  garments  in  our  summer  walks — the  "frog- 
hopper,"  or  "spume-bearer,"  in  his  perfection.  The 
round  of  his  life  is  thus  given  in  Harris's  beautiful 
volume,"  Insects  Injurious  to  Vegetation": 

"  The  '  frog-hoppers  '  pass  their  whole  lives  on 
plants,  on  the  stems  of  which  their  eggs  are  laid 
in  the  autumn.  The  following  summer  they  are 
hatched,  and  the  young  immediately  perforate  the 
bark  with  their  beaks,  and  begin  to  imbibe  the 
sap.  They  take  in  such  quantities  of  this  that  it 
oozes  out  of  their  bodies  continually  in  the  form 
of  litde  bubbles,  which  soon  completely  cover  up 
the  insects.  They  thus  remain  entirely  buried 
and  concealed  in  large  masses  of  foam  until  they 
have  completed  the  final  transformation,  on  which 
account  the  names  of  cuckoo-spittle,  frog-spittle, 
and  frog-hopper  have  been  applied  to  them.  The 
spittle  in  which  they  are  sheltered  may  be  seen  in 
great  abundance  during  the  summer  on  the  stems 
of  our  alders  and  willows.  In  the  perfect  state 
they  are  not  thus  protected,  but  are  found  on  the 
plants  in  the  latter  part  of  summer  fully  grown, 
and  preparing  to  lay  their  eggs.  In  this  state 
they  possess  the  power  of  leaping  in  a  remarkable 
degree,  and  for  this  purpose  the  tips  of  their  hind 
shanks  are  surrounded  with  little  spines." 

The  "spume-bearer"  {AphropJiora)  this  insect 


90  EYE   SPY 

has  been  called,  and  the  peculiar  method  by  which 
he  turns  out  the  froth  on  the  stem  is  well  worth  a 
little  study.  He  makes  no  secret  of  the  process. 
If  we  take  a  grass  stem,  remove  him  from  his 
liquid  lair,  and  transfer  him  to  another  stem,  we 
may  witness  a  novel  method  in  the  preparation  of 
suds.  And  a  busy  little  factory  it  is,  too,  when  we 
consider  what  a  continuous  demand  is  made  upon 
it,  caused  by  the  sun's  evaporation  through  the 
long  summer  day.  A  single  mass  of  bubbles  with 
its  tenant  removed  quickly  disappears.  If  the 
little  insect  is  permitted  to  crawl  upon  our  hand, 
he  is  apt  to  try  the  new  domicile.  I  have  never 
been  able  to  induce  him  to  continue  up  to  the 
suds  point,  but  have  no  trouble  in  locating  the 
place  where  he  begins  operations. 


■^ 


"W^ 


ur  common  msects 
enjoy  a  wider  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  or  a  more  respect- 
ful recognition  from  humanity  than 
the  wasps  and  hornets.  Their  ac- 
quaintance, with  that  of  their  yellow- 
jacket  bee  and  bumble-bee  relatives, 
is  forced  upon  most  of  us  at  a  ten- 
der and  impressionable  age,  and  leaves 
a  lasting  reminiscence.  Having  once 
been  interviewed  by  a  hornet,  do  we 
not  remember  him  for  life  for  his  pains  ? 

The  bee  has  perhaps  given  us  equally  pointed 
excuse  for  respectful,  or  rather  disrespectful,  con- 
sideration, and  yet  how  different  is  our  attitude  to 
the  bee  in  contrast  with  that  towards  the  hornet! 
Why.?     The  discrimination  is  largely  a  matter  of 


92  EYE   SPY 

sentiment,  but  especially  a  matter  of  ignorance; 
sentiment  as  associated  with  fragrant  flowers  and 
droning  wings  and  "white-clover  honey" — for  do 
we  not  all  know  the  "  busy  bee,"  and  how  he 
"  gathers  honey  all  the  day  "  for  the  hive,  and  thus 
for  humanity  and  the  hot  biscuit  ?  There  is  then 
a  palliative  for  the  busy  bee's  "  hot  foot,"  as  Paddy 
described  his  first  warm  contact  with  the  insect. 
But  who  ever  heard  of  any  one  with  a  good  word 
for  the  hornet  ?  He  is  under  the  ban — an  outlaw^ 
the  black  sheep  of  the  insect  fraternity,  a  source 
of  uneasy  suspicion,  shunned  by  valiant  man,  good 
for  nothing  to  the  boy  except  to  shy  stones  at 
from  a  safe  retreat ;  while  to  the  fair  sex,  always 
the  signal  for  precipitate  flight,  if  not  hysterical 
terror. 

The  popular  verdict  on  the  hornet  is  so  well 
voiced  in  that  famous  entomological  essay  from 
the  pen  of  Josh  Billings  that  I  am  tempted  to 
quote  it  entire  and  use  it  for  my  present  text.  I 
am  sure  the  average  reader  will  say  "  Amen  "  to 
every  w^ord  of  it : 

"  The  hornet  is  a  red-hot  child  ov  Nature  ov 
sudden  impreshuns  and  a  sharp  konklusion.  The 
hornets  alwus  fites  at  short  range  and  never  argy 
a  case.  They  settle  all  ov  their  disputes  bi  letting 
their  javelin  fly,  an'  are  az  certain  an'  az  anxious 
tew^  hit  az  a  mule  iz.  Hornets  bild  their  nest 
wherever  they  take  a  noshun  to,  an'  seldum  are 


THE   PAPER   WASP   AND    IIIS   DOINGS  93 

asked  to  move ;  for  what  good  is  it  tew  murder 
99  hornets  an'  have  the  one  hundred  one  hit  you 
with  his  javeHn !  I  kan't  tell  you  just  tew  a  day 
how  long  a  hornet  kan  live,  but  I  kno  from  expe- 
rience that  every  bug,  be  he  hornet  or  somebody 
else  who  is  mad  all  the  time,  an'  stings  every 
chance  he  kan  git,  generally  outlives  all  ov  his 
nabors." 

An  artistically  constructed  paragraph,  with  a 
"  snapper "  at  the  end  of  it,  or  rather  a  "  sharp 
konklusion  "  quite  consistent  with  its  subject. 

"  Mad  all  the  time,"  he  says,  and  "  stings  every 
chance  he  can  git,"  and  such  would  seem  to  be 
the  unanimous  belief.  Indeed,  the  phrase  "  As 
mad  as  a  hornet  "  has  passed  into  a  proverb,  which 
presumably  dates  back  to  the  Aryans,  or  at  least 
from  the  scriptural  allusion  of  the  providential 
visitation  of  hornets,  which  routed  the  impious  in- 
habitants of  Canaan  before  the  conquering  Israel- 
ites. The  ancient  Greeks  and  Latins  are  on  rec- 
ord in  their  appreciation  of  the  "  warlike  hornet," 
and  considered  that  it  came  rightly  by  its  valor 
as  an  inheritance  from  the  dead  war-horse  from 
whose  carcass  the  insects  were  supposed  to  be 
spontaneously  generated. 

"  The  warlike  horse  if  buried  underground 
Shortly  a  brood  of  hornets  will  be  found," 

writes  Ovid.     Another  author,  Cardanus,  thought 


94  EYE   SPY 

that  a  dead  mule  was  the  more  likely  source, 
which  recalls  the  above  erudite  allusion  of  heredi- 
tary instinct  of  Billings. 

Yes,  if  time -honored  popular  prejudice  is  to 
be  accepted,  the  hornet  is  always  on  the  ram- 
page, always  spoiling  for  a  fight,  always  "mad"; 
and  considering  how  many  thousands  of  them 
there  are  abroad,  and  what  opportunity  they 
have  of  mischief,  it  is  a  wonder  that  poor  hu- 
manity is  able  to  put  its  nose  out  of  doors  with 
impunity. 

Let  us  see  how  far  this  bad  reputation  is  sus- 
tained by  the  facts.  What  is  this  black  paper 
hornet  (more  properly  wasp)  doing  from  morning 
till  night.?  Buzzing  among  the  flowers,  creeping 
over  the  bruised  apple  windfalls  in  the  orchard, 
whirling  and  dodging  about  the  window  or  fence 
or  side  of  the  house,  or  perhaps  darting  in  our 
faces  as  we  sit  at  the  open  window. 

Two  episodes  which  I  recall,  in  which  this 
white-tailed  black  wasp  from  the  big  paper  nest 
was  conspicuous,  occur  to  me  as  I  write,  and  as 
the  two  stories,  taken  together,  will  show  us  the 
true  character  of  the  suspect,  and  what  he  is  up 
to  all  day  long,  I  will  narrate  them. 

The  first  instance  is  vivid  in  my  memory.  It 
occurred  in  my  boyhood  —  my  boyhood.?  how 
many  another  boy  remembers  the  same  incident. 
That  same  hot  day  in  August,  that  same   cool, 


# 


P-      %^ 


r:? 


^^r^ 


-  ^ 


# 


f 


V"' 


96  EYE   SPY 

shadowy  swimming-hole  in  the  brook,  that  same 
gray  paper  nest  on  the  overhanging  branch  a  few 
rods  up  stream  ?  What  a  tempting  target !  How 
the  stones  flew  as,  safe  up  to  our  necks  in  water, 
if  need  be,  we  pelted  the  paper  domicile  !  And 
now  a  lucky  throw  has  gone  straight  to  the  mark. 
With  a  crushing  thud  the  stone  has  penetrated 
the  side  and  knocked  off  a  piece  of  the  gray  wall, 
which  falls  to  the  stream  below,  exposing  the  tiers 
of  paper  comb,  as  a  whirling,  buzzy  maze,  like  a 
swarm  of  bees,  enshrouds  the  mangled  house. 
Ah,  what  fun  !  How  we  laughed  at  the  sport ! — 
for  at  least  ten  seconds.  Then  the  tide  turned, 
and  how  gladly  had  we  possessed  the  art  of  the 
bull-frog,  and  buried  ourselves  in  the  mud  until 
the  storm  blew  over,  for  the  "  mad  "  warlike  hor- 
nets were  upon  us.  The  red-hot  child  of  Nature 
"  was  now  at  short  range,"  and  "  stinging  every 
chance  they  could  get."  "  When  you  see  a  head 
hit  it,"  seemed  to  be  the  plan  of  campaign,  and  of 
course  the  heads  had  to  come  up  once  in  a  while, 
and  erelong  were  considerably  enlarged,  principal- 
ly through  inoculation,  but  let  us  hope  with  wis- 
dom as  well. 

"  A  mad  hornet,  and  only  at  a  little  boyish  fun ! 
Look  on  this  picture,  and  now  on  this." 

I  have  shown  our  hornet  under  exceptional  cir- 
cumstances, when  anger  may  be  a  positive  virtue 
and  a  means  of  grace.     Following  are  some  of 


THE   PAPER   WASP   AND    MIS   DOINGS  97 

the  every-day  capers,  which  have  not  helped  his 
reputation,  as  I  observed  them  on  the  crowded 
porch  of  a  summer  hotel  in  the  White  Moun- 
tains several  years  ago.  It  was  in  September, 
and  about  twenty  guests,  mo.stly  ladies  and  "  sum- 
mer girls,"  were  assembled  in  a  quiet  social  con- 
vention. 

Suddenly  there  was  a  scream,  as  one  of  the  fair 
ones,  with  a  frantic,  vigorous  stroke  of  uplifted 
fan;  distorted  face,  and  a  cross-eyed  glare,  clutched 
her  roll  of  fancy-work  and  fled  to  the  house.  "  Did 
he  sting  you  ?"  asked  her  friend,  who  readily  fol- 
lowed her  in  the  door.  "  The  horrid  hornet !"  she 
exclaimed.  "  No,  he  didn't  sting  me,  but  he  would 
have  done  if  I  hadn't  hit  him  just  that  minute. 
He  flew  right  at  me  in  the  tcglicst  way!"  The 
words  were  hardly  out  of  her  mouth  when  another 
scream  was  heard,  followed  by  a  general  clear- 
ing of  the  piazza.  There  were  now  two  or  three 
"  mad  "  hornets  making  themselves  generally  pro- 
miscuous among  the  guests.  At  the  last  general 
alarm  one  gentleman,  an  old  bachelor,  who  sat 
tilted  back  in  his  chair  near  by,  remarked,  with 
an  expression  of  superior  disdain  at  such  a  silly 
exhibition  of  feminine  weakness:  "  Why,  ladies, 
the  hornet  won't  sting  you  if  you'll  only  let  him 
alone;  he  has  been  buzzing  around  here  for  an 
hour,  and  hasn't  stung  anybody  yet." 

At  this  moment,  as  fate  would  have  it,  the  rov- 
7 


98  EYE   SPY 

ing  hornet  chanced  to  buzz  around  the  speaker, 
and  with  a  distinct  object  and  dehberate  aim 
phunped  itself  against  his  nose,  amid  a  roar  of 
laughter  from  the  gentlemen  present,  and  the 
complete  discomfiture  of  the  victim,  who  lost 
his  balance  and  toppled  over  sideways  upon  the 
floor.  He  was  now  glad  to  follow  the  ladies  in- 
doors, and  enjoy  the  fun  at  his  expense.  "  Well, 
it  might  have  been  expected,"  he  remarked,  "  af- 
ter the  way  you  have  all  been  screaming  and 
banging  at  him.  You  have  got  him  mad  at  last, 
and  the  innocent  spectator  has  had  to  suffer  in 
consequence." 

I  chanced  to  be  sitting  within  a  few  feet  of  the 
surprised  bachelor,  and  had  observed  the  incident. 
Indeed,  the  hornet  had  once  or  twice  struck  me 
forcibly  upon  my  coat  sleeve  and  shoulder.  Con- 
cluding that  the  incident  suggested  an  opportu- 
nity for  a  little  pedagogic  enlightenment,  illus- 
trated by  an  object-lesson  too  good  to  be  entirely 
lost,  I  sauntered  into  the  hotel  parlor,  and  did 
what  I  could  to  relieve  the  hornet  from  the  unjust 
aspersion  on  his  character. 

"  Did  he  sting  you  ?"  I  asked. 

"  No,  he  didn't,"  replied  the  victim,  who,  like 
the  ladies  whom  he  had  ridiculed,  was  more  sur- 
prised than  harmed ;  "  but  he  tried  to,  and  I 
concluded  not  to  give  him  a  second  chance. 
He    struck    me    so    hard   that   if    his    sting   had 


happened  to  hit  me, 
it  would  have  pene- 
trated my  skull." 

"  And  can  you  im- 
agine a  hornet  fail- 
ing in  his  intention 
when  he  gets  such 
a  good  square  shot 
as  that  ?"  I  asked, 
further. 

"  Well,  no,"  he  re- 
plied ;  "  but    perhaps 
his  venom  had  been 
^^gg.  .te  -  expended  on  the   la- 

dies; by  their  screams 

I  judge  most  of  them  must  have  been   stung  a 

half-dozen  times  apiece." 

.    "  If  you  will  step  out  on  the  porch  a  few  mo- 


lOO  EYE   SPY 

ments,"  I  proposed,  "  I  am  assured  you  will  soon 
be  disposed  to  offer  your  apology  to  the  indus- 
trious and  innocent  insect  which  you  have  so 
libelled." 

A  cautious  group  soon  assembled  at  the  door- 
way of  the  piazza,  and  at  my  suggestion  closely 
watched  the  antics  of  the  hornet,  which  was  still 
apparently  as  mad  as  ever,  in  the  absence  of  hu- 
man targets,  seemingly  "  working  off  his  mad  "  by 
butting  his  head  against  the  clapboards  along  the 
side  of  the  building.  After  a  moment  or  two  of 
this  exercise,  with  a  quick  curvet,  the  insect  be- 
took himself  to  the  roof  of  the  piazza,  where  he 
disappeared  among  the  bordering  vines.  A  little 
cautious  search  soon  revealed  his  hiding-place, 
however.  He  was  hanging,  head  downward,  by 
one  of  his  hind  legs,  twirling  some  dark  object  in 
his  front  feet;  and  it  needed  only  a  little  closer 
examination  to  disclose  this  object  to  be  a  fly, 
which  was  gradually  being  reduced  to  a  pulp  by 
the  sharp  jaws  of  its  captor — a  morsel,  doubtless, 
soon  to  find  its  way  to  the  cell  of  a  baby  hornet 
in  some  paper  nest  close  by. 

"You  will  now  doubtless  understand  that  pre- 
cipitate onslaught  on  your  nose,"  I  remarked  to 
my  bachelor  friend.  "  Rest  assured  that  the  at- 
traction of  that  aquiline  member  alone  would 
never  have  caused  the  panic  that  ensued ;  but  you 
did  not  give  our  hornet  the  credit  for  the  removal 


THE   TAPER   WASP   AND    HIS   DOINGS  loi 

of  that  pesky  fly  which  had  been  annoying  you 
for  so  long,  and  which  is  even  now  being  masti- 
cated into  an  unctuous  pellet  in  some  secluded 
corner  of  the  piazza,  or  is  perhaps  being  borne  on 
buzzing  maternal  wings  to  the  little 
white  grub  in  the  hornet  nest  yon- 
der in  the  pines." 

And  this  is  all  there 
is  to  the  "mad"  of  the 
hornet.  He  is  gener- 
ally not  half  as  mad 
as  are  his  detractors. 
He  is  simply  minding 
his  own  business,  and 
is  as  busy  as  a  bee  in 
his  own  way;  and  if 
his  critics  will  only 
mind  theirs,  there 
need  be  no  fear  that 
he  will  try  "  konklu- 
sions"  with  them,  or 
even  give  a  hint  of 
his  "javelin." 

This  curious  epi- 
sode may  be  witnessed  by  any  one  who  will  take 
the  trouble  to  closely  observe  the  wasp.  The 
sunny  side  of  the  barn  or  stable  is  generally  the 
favorite  hunting  -  ground,  and  any  one  who  will 
spend  a  half -hour  in  following  the  efforts   of  a 


102  EVE   SPY 

single  wasp  will  have  to  admit  that  he  earns  his 
living,  for  it  is  not  every  fly  that  is  caught  nap- 
ping, and  that  white  face,  with  its  eager,  open  jaws, 
must  needs  butt  itself  against  the  shingle  many 
times  before  its  quest  is  satisfied. 

But  the  warlike  hornet  does  not  always  content 
himself  with  such  small  game  as  a  house-fly.  Big 
bluebottle-flies  are  a  frequent  prey,  and  juicy  cat- 
erpillars are  a  welcome  variety  in  his  daily  diet. 
Even  the  butterfly,  with  a  body  nearly  as  large  as 
his  own,  falls  a  frequent  victim,  the  scimitar-like 
jaws  severing  the  painted  wings  in  a  twinkling, 
either  during  flight,  or  falling  one  by  one  from  its 
dangling  retreat. 

The  life  of  the  black  hornet,  or  wasp,  may  be 
briefly  summed  up.  The  females  survive  the  win- 
ter, and  in  spring  build  a  tiny  comb  of  papery 
material  composed  of  saliva  and  timber  scraped 
from  old  gray  boards  and  fence  rails.  In  each 
cell  of  the  comb  an  egg  is  laid,  which  soon  hatches 
into  a  minute  white  grub,  the  sides  of  the  cells 
being  continued  to  accommodate  its  growth,  the 
comb  being  gradually  inclosed  in  the  paper  cover- 
in  2^  and  enlaro^ed  as  the  nest  cells  are  increased. 
The  grub  at  maturity  incases  itself  within  its 
cell  by  closing  the  orifice  with  a  silken  veil,  and 
soon  turns  to  a  chrysalis,  and  in  a  few  days 
emerges  as  a  perfect  wasp.  Several  broods  are 
reared  in  a  season,  the  combs  being  extended  in 


THE   PAPER   WASP   AND    HIS   DOINGS  103 

several  layers,  each  suspended  by  a  single  stalk 
from  the  centre  of  the  one  immediately  above.  A 
single  nest  sometimes  presents  as  many  as  six  or 
seven  tiers.  But  the  nests  are  much  more  safely 
examined  in  winter  than  in  summer. 


t^M^pi 


an 


^aa 


BSERVERS  who  witnessed  from 
day  to  day  the  construction  of 
the  great  Brooklyn  Bridge  were 
often  heard  to  remark,  as  they 
looked  up  with  awe  from  the 
ferry-boats  beneath  at  the  workmen  suspended 
everywhere  among  the  net-work  of  cables,  "  Those 
men  look  just  like  spiders  in  a  web."  The  com- 
parison seemed  irresistible,  and  the  writer  heard 
it  expressed  many  times.  But  how  few  who 
gave  utterance  to  the  sentiment  realized  the 
full  significance  of  the  "  spider  "  allusion,  or  for 
a  moment  reflected  that  the  span  itself  was,  in 
many  particulars  of  its  construction,  but  a  par- 
allel of  an  engineering  feat  of  which  the  spider 
was  the  earliest  discoverer.  Yet  among  all  the 
distinguished  names  engraved  upon  the  memorial 


THE   spider's   span  10$ 

tablet  upon  the  stone  bridge-tower  the  spider  gets 
no  credit 

Day  after  day  and  week  after  week  we  might 
have  seen,  travelling  back  and  forth  against  the 
sky,  a  wheel-shaped  messenger  reeling  off  its  tiny 
wire.  Night  and  day  it  was  busy,  each  trip  add- 
ing one  more  strand  to  the  growing  cable  which 
was  to  support  the  great  substructure  below. 
And  what  was  this  travelling  wheel  called  ? 
"  The  carrier,"  or  "  traveller,"  if  I  remember  right- 
ly. Why  this  obviously  intentional  slight  and 
discourtesy  when  every  field  and  wood  and  copse 
in  the  country — indeed,  on  the  globe — showed  its 
living  example,  and  bore  its  myriadfold  witness 
that  the  "  spider "  was  the  only  legitimate  and 
proper  designation  ? 

In  the  other  most  notable  suspension-bridge,  at 
Niagara,  the  time-honored  methods  of  the  spider 
were  further  and  conspicuously  recognized,  but 
here  again  without  any  courteous  engraven  ac- 
knowledgment on  the  tablet  of  fame,  so  far  as  I 
have  learned. 

A  kite  was  flown  from  the  American  shore,  and 
reeled  out  so  as  to  fall  upon  the  Canadian  side, 
and  this  initial  strand  was  drawn  across,  and  sub- 
sequently strengthened  by  the  travelling  reek 

The  ends  of  the  added  wires  were  firmly  se- 
cured at  their  anchorage,  and  the  completed  cable 
at  length  re-enforced  by  guy-ropes. 


I06  EVE   SPY 

What  is  the  method  of  our  spider?  Ages  be- 
fore the  advent  of  the  human  engineer  he  fol- 
lowed the  same  tactics  which  we  now  see  him 
performing  in  every  meadow,  or  even  at  our  win- 
dow-sill, or  on  the  bouquet  upon  our  table,  linking 
flower  with  flower,  window-sill  with  garden  fence, 
bush  with  bush,  tree  with  tree,  with  his  glistening 
suspension-bridge  spanning  the  stream,  river,  and 
meadow.  This  wiry  thread  that  tightens  across 
our  face  as  we  ride  in  our  carriage,  and  leaves  its 
tingling  "  snap  "  upon  our  nose,  what  is  this  but 
the  model  suspension  cable  of  Arachne  strength- 
ened a  hundredfold  by  the  spider  which  has  trav- 
elled back  and  forth  over  its  course  for  hours  per- 
haps, each  trip  leaving  a  fresh  strand,  one  extrem- 
ity being  anchored  on  yonder  oak  in  the  meadow 
and  the  other  on  the  church  steeple?  Such  a 
cable  twenty  feet  in  length  is  a  common  chal- 
lenge in  our  walks  in  the  open  wood  road,  even 
making  a  perceptible  motion  among  the  leaves 
and  bending  twigs  on  either  side  ere  it  yields  to 
our  advance.  And  to  the  walker  who  cares  to  in- 
vestigate, a  silken  bridge  a  hundred  feet  in  length 
is  not  a  very  exceptional  find. 

This  bridge-building  is  not  confined  to  any  par- 
ticular month  or  season,  nor  to  any  one  species  of 
spider„  The  autumn  will  afford  us  the  best  op- 
portunity for  observation.  At  that  season  the 
spider-egg  tufts  are   turning  out  their  baby  spi- 


THE  spidp:r's  span 


107 


ders  by  the  millions,  each  a  perfect  grown  spider 
in  miniature,  and  apparently  as  skilled  at  birth  in 
the  peculiar  arts  of  its  kind  as  its  parents  were  in 
their  ripe  old  age.  Here  is  a  troop  of  them  upon 
this  drooping  branch  of  wild  grape  by  the  river 
brink.  Its  leaves  are  glistening  in  the  loose, 
rambling  tangle  which  marks  their  wanderings. 
They  are  evidently  not  satisfied  wdth 
their  present  surroundings,  and  would  '^ 

seem   desirous   of   getting 
as    far    as    possible    from 


^' 


I08  EYE   SPY 

the  neighborhood  of  their  cradle  and  swaddHng- 
clothes.  They  are  the  most  independent  and 
self-reliant  babies  on  record.  They  ask  advice 
from  no  one  —  indeed  their  mother  died  a  year 
ago,  perhaps  —  but  each  determines  to  leave  his 
brothers  and  sisters,  to  "  see  the  world  "  for  him- 
self, and  paddle  his  own  canoe. 

Fancy  a  first  trial  trip  on  a  tight- rope  from 
the  torch  of  the  Statue  of  Liberty  to  Govern- 
or's Island !  Yet  such  is  the  corresponding 
feat  accomplished  by  this  self  -  reliant  acrobat, 
which  a  few  days  or  perhaps  hours  ago  was  but 
an  esfs:! 

Here  is  one  family  of  spiderlings  upon  the 
grape-vine  spray,  for  instance.  They  are  hanging 
several  yards  above  the  water,  and  with  an  ocean, 
as  it  were,  between  them  and  the  distant  country 
upon  which  their  hearts  are  set.  But  there  is  no 
hesitation  or  misgiving.  Let  us  closely  observe 
this  eager  youngster  far  out  upon  the  point  of  the 
leaf.  The  breeze  is  blowing  across  the  brook. 
In  an  instant,  upon  reaching  the  edge  of  the  leaf, 
the  spiderling  has  thrown  up  the  tip  of  its  body, 
and  a  tiny,  glistening  stream  is  seen  to  pour  out 
from  its  group  of  spinnerets.  Farther  and  farther 
it  floats,  waving  across  the  water  like  a  pennant. 
Two,  three,  five,  ten,  fifteen  feet  are  now  seen  glis- 
tening in  the  sun.  Now  it  floats  in  among  the 
herbage  upon  the  opposite  bank,  and  seems  reach- 


ing  out  for  a  foothold.  In 
a  minute  more  its  tip  has 
brushed  against  a  tall  group 
of  asters,  and  clings  fast,  the 


-\-.V> 


J^ 


loose    span    sagging    in    the 
breeze,  and  as  we  turn  our 
attention  to  the  spider, 


we  see  that  he  has  turned  about, 
and  is  now  "  hauling  in  the  slack," 
which  he  continues  to  do  until  the 
span  is  taut,  when  he  anchors  it 
firmly  to  the  leaf,  and  without  a 


^"^ 


I  lO  EYE   SPY 

moment's  ceremony  steps  out  upon  his  tight-rope, 
and  makes  the  "trial  trip"  across  the  abyss  —  a 
feat  which  Dr.  McCook,  the  spider  speciaHst  and 
historian,  has  most  fehcitously  compared  to  the 
similar  trial  trip  of  Engineer  Farrington  across 
the  cable  of  the  East  River  Brido^e,  a  thrillinor 
event  which  was  witnessed  by  thousands  of  spec- 
tators from  sailing  craft  and  housetops. 

Our  spider  has  now  reached  the  asters  twenty 
feet  away,  and  is  doubtless  busying  himself  by 
further  securinq;  the  anchorage  at  this  terminus. 
It  is  quickly  done,  for  see,  he  is  even  now  far  out 
over  the  water  on  his  return  trip,  arriving  at  the 
grape  leaf  a  moment  later.  His  strand  is  now 
three  times  as  strong  as  at  first,  and  will  be  many 
times  stronger  before  he  is  satisfied  with  it.  An 
hour  later,  if  we  care  to  go  up-strearri  half  a  mile 
to  the  bridge,  or  half  a  mile  below  to  the  crossing 
pole,  for  the  sake  of  examining  those  asters  across 
the  brook,  we  shall  find  our  spiderling  nicely  set- 
tled in  a  tiny  little  home  of  his  own.  The  glis- 
tening span  is  now  like  a  tough  silken  thread, 
and  is  moored  to  the  head  of  flowers  by  a  half- 
dozen  guy-threads  in  all  directions,  while  in  their 
midst,  in  the  "  nave  of  his  tiny  wheel  of  lace,"  our 
smart  young  baby  rests  from  his  labors. 

Such  is  the  probable  course  which  he  would 
follow,  unless,  perhaps,  his  roving  spirit,  thus 
tempted,  has  further  asserted  itself,  and  not  con- 


THE  spider's  span  m 

tent  with  this  exploit,  he  has  concluded  to  span 
the  clouds,  and  is  even  now  sailing 'a  thousand 
feet  aloft  in  his  "  balloon." 

As  a  bridge-builder  he  has  had  many  success- 
ful  imitators,  but  as  a  balloonist  he  is  yet  more 
than  a  match  for  his  bigger  copyist,  homo  sapiens, 
as  I  shall  explain  in  a  subsequent  paper. 


HE    coun- 
try boy,  or 
I    might 
say   even 
country  baby,  who  does  not 
know  a  spider-web  when  he 
sees  it  would  be  considered 
a  curiosity  nowadays.     The 
morning  gossamer  spread  in 


the 


grass    or    hung 


'g 


the  weeds  and  ghstening  in 


BALLOONING   SPIDERS  113 

the  dew— who  has  not  seen  it,  and  thought  of  the 
agile,  long  -  legged  proprietor  somewhere  lurking 
near  by?     And  yet  for  ages,  and  until  a  compara- 
tively   recent    date,   this    cobweb,   either    trailing 
lightly  in  the  breeze  or  spread  in  the  grass,  was  a 
mystery  as  to  its  source,  and  was  believed  to  con- 
sist of  dew  burned  by  the  sun.     But  the  spider 
has   hoodwinked   even   the    wise   heads   in    many 
other  ways,  and   even  to-day  is  an  unsolved  mys- 
tery to  many  of  us.     Yes,  we  all  know  the  spider- 
web  and  the   spider,  but   have  we   tried  to  solve 
the  puzzle  which  he  spreads  before  us  by  every 
path,  in  our  window-blind,  our  office,  our  bedroom, 
or  even,  it  may  be,  in  mid -ocean.     Here,  for  in- 
stance, a  puzzled   nautical   friend   propounds   the 
question :  "  How  do  those  tiny  spiders  get  on  my 
yacht  when   I   am    twenty  miles   at  sea.?     They 
could  not  have   hatched   simultaneously  all  over 
the  ship,  and  I  find  them  by  the  dozens  all  over 
the  sails  and  rigging,  and  even  on  my  clothing." 
I  have  heard  of  a  little  girl  who  ran  in -doors  to 
her  mother  in  great  excitement  to  tell  her  that  it 
was  "snowin'  pider-webs,"  a  picturesque  and  true 
statement  as  far  as   it  goes,  but  which  tells  but 
half  the  story,  for  each  of  the  falling  webs  held  a 
pretty  secret.     What  that  secret  was  my  yachts- 
man  can   readily  guess,  for   the    two  half -stories 
taken   together   complete    the    tale.     Various  ac- 
counts   of    these    gossamer    showers    have    been 


114  KYE   SPY 

handed  down  in  histor)-,  and  were  always  a  mys- 
tery. Even  the  ancient  Pliny  records  a  "  rain  of 
wool,"  a  phenomenon  which,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  is  to  be  seen  by  every  walker. in  the  coun- 
try during  the  late  summer  and  autumn  months — 
the  annual  picnic  of  the  "ballooning  spiders," 
whose  peculiar  aeronautic  methods  are  shown  in 
my  illustration. 

Gilbert  White,  in  his  "  History  of  Selborne," 
written  over  a  hundred  years  ago,  gives  a 
most  graphic  account  of  one  of  these  cobweb 
showers  : 

"  On  September  the  21st,  1741,"  he  says,  "  being 
then  on  a  visit,  and  intent  on  field  diversions,  I 
rose  before  daybreak.  When  I  came  into  the  en- 
closures, I  found  the  stubbles  and  clover  grounds 
matted  all  over  with  a  thick  coat  of  cobweb,  in 
the  meshes  of  which  a  copious  and  heavy  dew 
hung  so  plentifully  that  the  whole  face  of  the 
country  seemed  as  it  were  covered  with  two  or 
three  setting-nets  drawn  one  over  another.  When 
the  dogs  attempted  to  hunt,  their  eyes  were  so 
blinded  and  hoodwinked  that  they  could  not  pro- 
ceed, but  were  obliged  to  lie  down  and  scrape  off 
the  encumbrances  from  their  faces  with  their 
fore  feet,  so  that  finding  my  sport  interrupted,  I 
returned  home  musing  on  the  oddness  of  the  oc- 
currence. .  .  .  About  nine  o'clock  an  appearance 
very  unusual  began  to  demand  my  attention — a 


BALLOONTXG   sriDKRS  II5 

shower  of  cobwebs  falling  from  very  elevated  re- 
gions, and  continuing  without  any  interrui)tion 
until  the  close  of  day.  These  webs  are  not  sin- 
gle filmy  threads  floating  in  the  air  in  all  di- 
rections, but  perfect  flakes  or  rags,  some  near 
an  inch  broad  and  five  or  six  long,  which  fell 
with  a  degree  of  velocity  that  showed  they 
were  considerably  heavier  than  the  atmosphere. 
On  every  side,  as  the  observer  turned  his  eyes, 
he  might  behold  a  continual  succession  of  fresh 
flakes  falling  into  his  sight,  and  twinkling  like 
stars  as  they  turned  their  sides  to  the  sun."' 

This  same  shower  was  witnessed  by  others,  and 
one  observer  noted  a  similar  one  from  the  summit 
of  a  high  mountain,  the  sky  above  him  to  the 
limit  of  his  vision  glistening  with  the  silvery  flakes. 

White  adds,  further:  "Strange  and  supersti- 
tious as  were  the  notions  about  gossamers  former- 
ly, nobody  in  these  days  doubts  that  they  are  the 
real  production  of  small  spiders,  which  swarm  in 
the  fields  in  fine  weather  in  autumn,  and  have  a 
power  of  shooting  out  webs  from  their  tails,  so  as 
to  render  themselves  buoyant  and  lighter  than  the 
air." 

I  have  italicized  a  phrase  which  is  most  sug- 
gestive, for  such  is  the  actual  resource  of  the 
spider  balloonist,  a  feat  which  may  be  witnessed 
by  any  one  at  the  expense  of  a  little  trouble  and 
patience. 


i6 


EYE   SPY 


i'-' 


Almost  any  bright  autumn  or  late  summer  day 

is  certain  to  reward  our  search — indeed,  a  search 

will   hardly   be  necessary.      The  entire  meadows 

are  often  draped  in  the  glistening  meshes.     They 

festoon    the    grass    tips, 

'     '  "•  -  and    wave    their    silken 

streamers     from    every 

'    -V     -^      /!  mullein    or    other    tall 

>      ;■'        ..      weed.   Our  garments  are 

/  '       soon   faced   with   a   new 

warp  and  woof  of 
glistening  silk,  and 
an  occasional  tick- 
ling betrays  the 
floating  fluffy  mass 
which  has  en- 
combed  our  hands 
or  face.     The  elis- 

o 

tening    "rain    of 
wool "    of   Pliny,  or   the 
mimic     snow  -  squall     of 
Gilbert    White,   I    have 
)  witnessed    many    times, 

^  only  in  less  degree,  over 

the  October  rowen-fields. 
This  tickling  upon  our  hands  is  perhaps  not  all 
to  be  accounted  for  by  the  mere  contact  of  the 
silky  web.  If  we  examine  closely,  we  shall  doubt- 
less find    a   lively   little  spider   extricating  itself 


BALLOONING   SPIDERS  II7 

from  its  unsatisfactory  anchorage,  and  creeping  to 
the  nearest  available  position  for  a  new  flight. 
Even  as  you  are  examining  the  web  upon  your 
hand  the  spry  midget  has  mounted  to  the  top  of 
your  finger,  and  is  off  on  his  new  silken  balloon 
in  a  twinkling,  sailing  upward  and  out  of  sight 
even  while  his  fellow-aeronauts  are  fallins:  risrht 
and  left.  For  this  flying-machine,  though  a  toy, 
as  it  were,  of  the  wind,  is  still  under  control  of  the 
wise  little  sailor  at  the  helm. 

Almost  any  one  of  these  flying  tufts  intercepted 
on  our  finger  or  upon  a  small  stick  will  induce  its 
little  aeronaut  to  make  a  new  start,  and  a  careful 
examination  with  a  pocket  magnifier  will  disclose 
his  secret.  No  matter  how  slight  the  breeze,  he 
seems  instantly  to  head  against  it,  the  abdomen 
is  then  raised,  and  in  a  moment  a  tiny  stream  of 
flossy  glistening  silk  is  seen  issuing  from  the 
spinnerets  beneath.  Not  the  ordinary  single  web 
which  we  all  know,  but  a  broad  band  which  rep- 
resents the  many  hundreds  of  strands  usually 
combined  in  the  single  thread,  but  now  permitted 
to  issue  singly  from  the  spinnerets.  White  speaks 
of  the  spider  "  shooting  out "  the  web,  and  such 
is  the  apparent  feat,  but  doubtless  the  breeze  as- 
sists in  the  operation.  It  is  certainly  taking  good 
care  of  this  floating  banner  from  the  loom  of  this 
little  spinner  upon  our  finger-tip.  "Longer  and 
longer  it  grows.     A  yard  or  more  of  its  length  is 


Il8  EYE   SPY 

soon  swaying  about  in  the  breeze.  So  buoyant 
has  it  now  become  that  the  little  spider  is  vis- 
ibly drawn  upward,  and  now  clings  barely  by 
his  tip- toes.  In  another  second  he  is  off  on 
his  travels,  where  few  could  follow  him  even 
if  they  would.  But  this  we  must  do  if  we 
would  see  the  true  "  balloon,"  with  its  basket 
and  rigging  and  captain  all  in  perfect  sailing 
trim. 

Up  to  the  point  of  ascension — to  utt^r  a  Hi- 
bernianism — I  have  often  thus  followed  my  bal- 
loonist, but  at  this  point  I  willingly  yield  the 
pursuit  to  a  more  competent  witness,  one  whose 
recognized  fame  as  the  historian  of  the  whole 
spider  fraternity  needs  no  emphasis  from  me. 
They  have  kept  very  few  of  their  secrets  from  the 
Rev.  Dr.  McCook.  He  has  followed  them  even 
in  their  flight,  and  has  brought  back  all  the  tricks 
of  their  navigation.  To  have  been  able  to  de- 
scribe as  an  eye-witness  not  only  the  ascension, 
but  the  subsequent  alert  and  skilful  rigging,  trim- 
ming of  ship,  sailing,  reefing,  and  final  anchoring 
in  port  of  this  aeronaut  with  the  silken  jib,  as  Dr. 
McCook  has  done,  acquiring  his  facts  through  a 
wild  pantomime  in  the  meadows,  which  for  a  time 
risked  his  reputation  for  sanity,  is  a  triumph  of 
patient  investigation  which  deserves  conspicuous 
acknowledgment. 

Here    is   what    the   doctor  observed   while  his 


BALLOONING   SPIDERS  II9 

neighbors,  as  he  ran  cross-eyed  over  the  meadow, 
were  bewailing  the  loss  of  his  reason : 

"  The  spider,  as  she  was  raised  from  the  perch, 
had  her  head  downward.  She  immediately  and 
swiftly  reverses  her  position,  clambers  up  her 
floating  threads,  at  the  same  time  throwing  out  a 
few  filaments,  which  are  cunningly  twisted  into  a 
sort  of  basket  into  which  the  feet  can  rest.  Now 
the  upper  legs  grasp  the  lower  of  the  ray,  and  the 
spinnerets,  being  released  therefrom,  are  again  set 
to  work,  and  with  amazing  rapidity  spin  out  a  sec- 
ond and  similar  ray,  which  floats  up  behind  her. 
Thus  our  aeronaut's  balloon  is  complete,  and  she 
sits  in  the  middle  of  it,  drifting  whither  the  breeze 
may  carry  her.  She  is  not  wholly  at  the  mercy 
of  the  wind,  however,  for  if  she  wishes  to  alight, 
she  can  gather  the  threads  into  a  little  white  ball 
under  her  jaws ;  as  they  gradually  shorten,  the 
spider,  having  nothing  to  buoy  her,  sinks  by  her 
own  weight,  and  the  striking  upon  some  elevated 
object,  or  falling  upon  the  grass,  makes  her  feel 
at  home." 

Having  once  alighted,  the  little  pioneer  imme- 
diately sets  up  house-keeping  for  herself,  and  the 
locality  of  its  web  in  a  year  hence  will  doubtless 
be  the  scene  of  a  similar  balloon  ascension,  multi- 
plied perhaps  a  thousandfold,  from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  a  tuft  of  eggs  somewhere  concealed 
among  the  herbage — perhaps   a  brown,  cocoon- 


EVE    Sl'Y 


like   affair  like  that  of   the  Aroiopf  riparia.  hung 
witii  its  guy  threads  upon  a  dried  fern. 

riie  ballooning  or  tlying   spiders  are   not   con- 
fined   to   any    j)artic- 

ular species.  Itseenis  ^^^^^^^ 

to  be  an  instinct  with  ^Zjf^^. 

them  all,  but  espe- 
cially with  the  orb- 
weavers,  or  geometri- 
cal web -makers,  and 


■■»/ 


the  wolf  spiders; 
those  queer  short- 
legged  specimens 
which  dodge  about  upon  the 
walls  and  fences,  running  for- 
ward or  backward  as  the  whim 
takes  them,  or  even  sideways 
^  in  a  manner  at  which  a  crab 

might  turn  green  with  envy. 
A  shower  of  cobwebs  of  unusual  extent  fell  in 
the  vicinity  of  Brooklyn  about  ten  years  ago.  hav- 
ing been  especially  noted  by  a  party  of  surveyors 


BALLOONING   SPIDERS  121 

in  Prospect  Park,  among  whom  was  a  noted  sci- 
entist and  naturalist.  The  ground  was  covered 
with  the  webs,  averaging  as  many  as  fifteen  to  the 
square  foot.  The  shower  was  later  noticed  by 
the  same  observers  upon  the  summit  of  the 
Brooklyn  Bridge  tower,  and  doubtless  covered 
several  miles  in  area. 


ACE  indeed !  Was  ever  lace  even 
of  fairy  queen  fashioned  so  daintily 
as  are  the  wings  of  this  diaphanous 
pale  green  sylph,  that  flutters  in  its  filmy 
halo  above  the  grass  tips  ?  Yonder  it  alights 
upon  the  clover.  Let  us  steal  closely  upon 
its  haunt.  Here  we  find  it  hid  under  the  up- 
per leaf,  its  eyes  of  fiery  gold  gleaming  in  the 
shadow,  its  slender  body  now  caged  within  the 
canopy  of  its  four  steep,  sloping  wings,  their 
glassy  meshes  lit  with  iridescent  hues  of  opal — 
the  lace-wing  fly,  a  delight  to  the  eye,  but  whose 
fragile  being  is  guarded  from  our  too  rude  ap- 
proach by  a  challenge  to  our  sense  of  smell, 
which  plainly  warns  us,  "  Touch  not,  handle  not !" 
Our  first  capture  of  the  fairy  insect  is  always  a 
memorable   feat,  with    its    lingering,  odorous    re- 


THE    LACE-WING   FLY  I23 

minders,  which  not  even  soap  and  hot  water  will 
entirely  obliterate  from  our  finger-tips.  But  why 
should  we  have  caught  her?  What  an  opportu- 
nity we  threw  away  in  her  capture !  Why  not, 
rather,  have  followed  the  gauzy  sprite,  and  learned 
something  of  her  ways,  something  of  the  mission 
she  is  performing  as  she  flits  from  leaf  to  leaf? 
For  this  is  no  idle  flight  of  the  lace-wing  fly  as 
we  see  her  in  the  summer  meadow.  Her  golden 
eyes  are  on  a  sharp  lookout  for  a  certain  quest, 
and  we  are  fortunate  if  we  chance  to  surprise  her 
softly  at  the  time  of  her  discovery,  and  with 
breathless  stillness  encourage  her  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  her  plans.  Everywhere  among  the  grass- 
es, weeds,  and  bushes  we  find  the  airy  tokens  of 
her  visits;  those  delicate,  hair-like  fringes  sur- 
rounding  culm  or  twig,  or  growing  like  a  tiny  tuft 
of  some  webby  mould  upon  the  surface  of  leaf. 
But  who  even  guesses  the  nature  of  the  pretty 
fringe,  or  even  associates  with  it  the  pale  green 
golden-eyed  fly  which  we  all  know  so  well  ? 

Here  beneath  our  close  leaf  is  an  opportunity 
which  we  must  not  permit  to  pass.  Even  as  we 
take  another  cautious  peep  we  discover  that  a 
cobwebby  hair  has  grown  from  the  surface  of  the 
leaf,  with  its  tiny  knob  at  the  summit;  and  now 
another  is  growing  beside  it,  following  the  pointed 
rising  tip  of  the  insect's  slender  tail.  It  has  now 
reached   a   half  -  inch   in    length,  when   the    little 


124  EYE   SPY 

knob  suddenly  appears  and  is  firmly  glued  to  the 
summit  of  the  hair.  Another  and  another  are 
added  to  the  group,  until  a  complete  tuft  or  fringe 
hangs  beneath  the  leaf.  Of  course  the  reader 
will  have  now  guessed  the  secret  of  the  episode — 
that  this  is  a  mother  lace-wing  fly  thinking  only 
of  her  future  brood.  But  what  a  unique  method 
she  employs  in  egg -laying!  What  seeming 
reckless  consideration  for  her  offspring!  Fancy 
awakening  from  one's  crib  only  to  find  one's  self 
on  the  top  of  a  telegraph  pole,  or  clinging  for 
dear  life  at  the  end  of  a  dangling  rope  or  rod ! 
Yet  such  is  the  initial  experience  of  the  baby  lace- 
wing  flies  as  they  emerge  from  their  filmy,  iri- 
descent cradles,  whose  very  first  experience  in  life 
must  needs  be  a  daring  feat  of  acrobatics.  But, 
hunger  is  a  mighty  incentive  to  work  and  dar- 
ing deeds,  and  the  lace  -  wing  infant  is  born 
hungry,  grows  hungrier  with  each  moment  of  its 
subsequent  life,  and  is  apparently  the  more  fam- 
ished in  proportion  to  its  gluttony,  fully  realiz- 
ing the  comment  of  Josh  Billings  upon  the  vora- 
cious billy-goat,  "  All  it  eats  seems  tew  go  tew 
apetight." 

We  may  be  sure  that  this  gauzy  mother -fly, 
with  her  appetizing  reminiscences  of  her  former 
epicurean  days,  has  placed  her  progeny  in  a  land 
of  plenty  —  a  land  almost  literally  of  "milk  and 
honey."      For    wherever    we    find    this    delicate 


THE    LACE-WING    FI.V  1 25 

fringe  of  pale  green  eggs  we  may  confidently 
look  also  for  its  counterpart — a  swarm  of  aphides, 
or  plant-lice,  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood,  oc- 
casionally clustering  about  the  very  stalks  of  the 
eggs,  and  shedding  their  copious  "honey-dew  "  for 
the  benefit  of  the 
caressing  ants, 
which  sip  at 
their  upraised, 
flowing  pipes. 
Ah  !  if  these 
happy  ants  only 
realized  the 
menace  of  this 
slender  fringe 
—  who  knows 
but  that  they 
m  ay?  —  how 
quickly  they 
were  to  be  cut 
down  by  the  de- 
stroying teeth  ! 

Here,  for  instance,  a  wee  babe  just  out  of  the 
egg  slides  down  the  stalk,  and  falls  plump  among 
a  whole  family  of  the  aphides.  In  a  twinkling  a 
young  aphis  larger  than  himself  is  impaled  on  his 
sharp  teeth  and  its  body  sucked  dry.  But  this  is 
merely  an  appetizer;  he  has  only  to  extend  his 
jaws  on   right  or  left  to  secure   another  similar 


126  EYE   SPY 

morsel,  which  is  emptied  in  the  same  manner,  and 
his  first  meal  would  only  seem  to  be  limited  by 
the  number  of  victims  available,  so  insatiate  is  his 
craving.  In  a  short  time  he  must  needs  move  up 
farther  along  the  twig,  and  thus  his  swath  ex- 
tends, until  within  an  incredibly  short  space  of 
time  the  entire  swarm  of  aphides  has  disappeared, 
leaving  the  field  occupied  alone  by  the  larva,  who 
has  perhaps  now  acquired  his  full  growth  by  their 
absorption — a  full-fledged  "aphis  lion,"  as  he  is 
called.  He  is  now  about  a  half-inch  in  length,  a 
long  pointed  oval  in  outline,  the  sides  of  its  body 
beset  with  bristly  warts,  and  its  head  armed  with 
two  long  incurved  teeth.  But  these  teeth  are  not 
like  ordinary  teeth,  constructed  for  "chewing"  or 
biting,  but  rather  for  imbibing,  and  suggest  the 
two  straws  in  the  glass  of  the  convivialist ;  being 
tubular,  their  open  points  are  imbedded  within 
the  juicy  body  of  the  aphis,  which  is  soon  emptied 
to  the  last  drop. 

The  aphides  are  always  with  us.  Where  is  the 
lover  of  the  rose-garden  who  is  not  painfully 
familiar  with  the  pests,  their  pale  green  swarms 
completely  encircling  the  tender  shoots,  and  shed- 
ding their  sticky,  shining  "honey -dew"  every- 
where like  a  varnish  upon  the  leaves  and  flowers 
beneath.  Hardly  a  plant  or  tree  escapes  their 
parasitic  attacks  in  one  form  or  another,  where, 
with  their  beaks   imbedded   in   the   tender  bark, 


^^  ^,rj 


they  suck  the  sap, 
and  literally  over- 
flow with  the  bounty 
which  they  thus  ab- 
sorb and  convert  into  "  honey- 
dew." 

We  need  not  go  very  far  in 
our  country  walk  to  discover 
our  aphides  encircling  the 
stems  of  weed  and  shrub,  and 
it  is  well  the  next  time  we 
encounter  them  to  observe 
them  more  closely.  They 
would  indeed  appear  at  first 
glance  to  be  having  things  en- 
tirely their  own  way.  Even 
here  in  my  city  back  yard, 
for  instance,  upon  my  grow- 
ing chrysanthemums,  as  I  sit  at  the  back  win- 
dows some  twenty  feet  distant,  I  can  distinctly 
see  their  brown,  disfiguring  masses  completely 
inclosing  the  under  tips  of  nearly  all  the 
branches. 


128 


EYE    SPY 


Again  and  again  have  I  shaken  or  brushed 
them  off  only  to  see  them  increase  and  multiply ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  on  more  than  one  occa- 
sion have  I  seen  an  entire  swarm  vanish  from  a 
particular  twig  which  I  knew  was  infested  only  a 
day  or  two  previous.     Why?      It  was  not  that  the 


aphides  had  completed  their  growth  and  died  or 
fled.  A  careful  examination  among  the  young 
leaves  or  along  the  stem  in  their  neighborhood 
showed  the  author  of  the  havoc,  a  fat  aphis  lion, 
perhaps,  in  the  act  of  sucking  the  contents  of 
its  last  victim,  or,  perhaps,  having  completed  his 
growth,  contemplating  the  commencement  of  his 
cocoon  in  which  to  abide  during  the  winter. 


THE   LACE-WING   FLY  129 

Almost  any  swarm  of  aphides  will  show  us  this 
fat  wolf  in  the  fold,  and  if  not  this  particular  one, 
another— perhaps  two  others— quite  as  voracious, 
one  of  them  the  fat  larva  of  the  lady-bug,  and  the 
other  a  tapering- looking  grub  with  needle  beak 
and  insatiable  hunger,  the  larva  of  the  oold- 
banded  flower-fly. 


URPRISES  await  us  at 
every  turn  in  wood  and 
field  if  our  senses  are  suf- 
ficiently alert  and  responsive.  I  well 
remember  the  sinoular  revelation  which 


THE  perfump:i)  reeti,e  131 

rewarded  my  curiosity  upon  a  certain  occasion  in 
my  boyhood,  an  incident  which  now  seems  trivial 
enough,  but  which  marked  a  rare  day  in  my 
youthful  entomological  education,  and  which,  as 
it  relates  to  an  insect  of  exceptional  peculiarity, 
I  may  here  recall. 

I  was  returning  homeward  after  a  successful 
day  of  hide-and-seek  with  the  caterpillars  and 
buttei-flies  and  beetles,  my  well-stored  collecting- 
box  being  filled  with  squirming  and  creeping 
specimens,  and  my  hat  brim  adorned  with  a  swarm 
of  Idalias,  Archippus,  yellow  swallow-tails,  and 
other  butterflies — the  butterfly-net  on  this  partic- 
ular occasion  being  rendered  further  useless  by 
the  occupancy  of  a  big  red  adder  which  I  wished 
to  preserve  "alive  and  sissin'."  I  had  taken  a 
short  cut  through  the  woods,  and  had  paused  to 
rest  on  a  well-known  mossy  rock.  The  welcome 
odors  of  the  woods,  the  mould,  the  dank  moss, 
and  the  spice-bush  lingered  about  me;  and  I  well 
remember  the  occasional  whiff  from  the  fragrant 
pyrolas  somewhere  in  my  neighborhood,  though 
unseen.  It  was  a  very  warm  day  in  the  middle 
of  July,  and  even  the  busiest  efforts  of  millions  of 
cool,  fluttering  leaves  of  the  shadowed  woods  had 
barely  tempered  the  languid  breeze,  laden  as  it 
was  with  the  reminders  of  the  glaring  hay-field 
just  outside  its  borders. 

Among  all  the   various   odorous  waf tings  that 


132  EYE   SPY 

came  to  me,  I  caught  a  whiff  which  was  entirely 
new,  and  which  in  its  suggestions  seemed  strange- 
ly out  of  place  here  in  the  woods.  What  was  it 
like  ?  It  certainly  reminded  me  of  so7nething  w^ith 
which  my  nostril  was  familiar,  but  which  I  could 
not  now  identify.  I  only  knew  that  it  had  no 
place  here  in  the  woods,  and  even  as  I. sought  to 
take  one  extra  full  sniff  for  further  analysis,  it  was 
gone.  After  the  lapse  of  a  few  moments,  how- 
ever, its  faint  suggestion  returned,  and,  increasing 
moment  by  moment,  at  length  seemed  to  tincture 
the  air  like  incense.  It  was  now  so  strong  as  to 
be  pungent,  and  my  wits  w^re  keyed  to  their  ut- 
most, until  at  length  a  vision  of  a  banana  peel 
seemed  to  hover  against  the  dried  leaves.  "  Some 
one  has  been  eating  a  banana  here,  and  thrown 
the  peel  away,"  thought  I.  But  no,  this  is  hardly 
the  odor  of  banana,  either;  it  is  more  like  pine- 
apple. Yes,  it  is  pineapple.  No,  that  is  not  quite 
it  either;  it  is  strawberry.  "Nonsense.  Straw- 
berry season  was  passed  two  weeks  ago."  And 
while  I  am  debating  the  matter  the  spice-bush  at 
my  elbow  has  sent  out  a  pungent  challenge  which 
has  chased  the  enchantment  all  away.  The  next 
time  it  returns  in  a  new  guise,  and  the  only  sug- 
gestion which  it  brings  is  a  reminder  of  my  moth- 
er's red  leather  travelling-bag.  Russia-leather? 
Yes,  that  is  it — Russia-leather.  No.  Russia-leather, 
pineapple,  strawberry,  and  banana  peel  mixed. 


l^ 


Whatever  it 
was  and  wher-  ,  - 

ever    it    came  ./    '     - 

from     I     now  s^ 

determined   to 

discover.  The  direction  of  the  breeze  was  soon 
ascertained,  and  I  started  out  to  follow  up  the 
scent  like  a  hound.  I  had  walked  about  ten 
feet,  with  my  nose  tingling,  when  the  odor  sud- 
denly left  me.  I  paused  at  a  large  maple -tree, 
and  awaited  the  trail.  It  came.  This  time  it 
proved  to  be  a  hot  scent,  in  truth.  I  needed 
only  to  follow  my  nose  around  the  trunk  of  the 
tree  at  my  elbow  to  be  brought  face  to  face  with 
my  game.     It  was  no  banana  peel,  nor  pineapple, 


134  KYE   SPY 

nor  Russia-leather  bag,  but  only  a  company  of 
beetles  sipping  in  the  sun.  A  banquet  of  beetles ! 
There  were  ten  or  a  dozen  of  them,  congregated 
about  a  hole  in  the  maple  trunk,  all  sipping  at  a 
furrow  in  the  bark  from  which  sap  was  oozing. 
At  my  approach  they  started  to  conceal  them- 
selves in  the  hole,  but  were  most  of  them  capt- 
ured. They  were  about  an  inch  in  length,  and 
of  a  purplish  -  brown  color,  and  glistened  like 
bronze. 

I  took  my  prizes  home,  and  determined  to  an- 
nounce my  great  discovery  to  the  world  in  an 
early  issue  of  some  scientific  paper,  fully  assured 
that  I  had  made  a  "great  find."  Before  accom- 
plishing this  purpose,  however,  I  thought  I  would 
consult  my  "oracle,"  "Harris's  Insects  Injurious 
to  Veo-etation" — a  most  beautiful  and  valuable 
entomological  work,  by-the-way,  which  should  be 
in  every  boy's  library.  There,  on  page  forty-two, 
behold  my  odorous  specimen,  true  to  life !  And 
what  does  Harris  say  about  him  ?  "  They  are 
nocturnal  insects,  and  conceal  themselves  through 
the  day  in  the  crevices  and  hollows  of  trees,  where 
they  feed  upon  the  sap  that  flows  from  the  bark. 
They  have  the  odor  of  Russia-leather,  and  give 
this  out  so  powerfully  that  their  presence  can  be 
detected  by  the  scent  alone  at  the  distance  of  two 
or  three  yards  from  the  place  of  their  retreat. 
This  strong  smell  suggested  the  name  Osmoder- 


THE   PERFUMED    BEETLE 


135 


ma,  '  scented  skin,'  given  to  these  beetles  by  the 
French  naturah'sts." 

"Nocturnal"  they  may  be,  but  that  they  are 
diurnal  also  I  have  many  times  proved.  Almost 
any  hot  sunny  day  I  am  even  now  sure  of  my 
specimen  upon  a  certain  oozy  cherry  trunk  near 
by,  the  presence  even  of  one  beetle  being  distinct- 
ly announced  at  a  distance  of  ten  feet. 

There  are  two  common  species  of  these  beetles, 
the  present  insect  being  the  Osmodenna  scabei,  as 
given  by  Harris. 


(3/f(^hwom0porefZLritA 


THE  dusty  puff-ball,  floating  its  faint 
trail  of  smoke  in  the  breeze  from  the 
ragged  flue  at  its  dome -shaped  roof 
as  from  an  elfin  tepee,  or  perhaps  enveloping  our 
feet  in  its  dense  purple  cloud  as  we  chance  to 
step  upon  it  in  the  path,  is  familiar  to  every  one 
— always  enthusiastically  welcomed  by  the  small 


MUSHROOM    SPORE-PRINTS  T37 

boy,  to  whom  it  is  always  a  challenge  for  a  kick, 
and  a  consequent  demonstration  of  smoke  worthy 
of  a  Fourth-of-July  celebration. 

A  week  ago  this  glistening  gray  bag,  so  free 
with  its  dust-puff  at  the  slightest  touch,  was  solid 
in  substance  and  as  white  as  cottage  cheese  in  the 
fracture. 

But  in  a  later  stage  this  clear  white  fracture 
would  have  appeared  speckled  or  peppered  with 
gray  spots,  and  the  next  day  entirely  gray  and 
much  softened,  and,  later  again,  brown  and  appar- 
ently in  a  state  of  decay.  But  this  is  not  decay. 
This  moist  brown  mass  becomes  powdery  by 
evaporation,  and  the  puf¥-ball  is  now  ripe,  and  in- 
tent only  on  posterity. 

Each  successive  squeeze  as  we  hold  it  between 
our  fingers  yields  its  generous  response  in  a  pufT 
of  brown  smoke,  which  melts  away  apparently 
into  air.  But  the  puff-ball  does  not  end  in  mere 
smoke.  This  vanishing  purple  cloud  is  com- 
posed of  tiny  atoms,  so  extremely  minute  as  to  re- 
quire the  aid  of  a  powerful  microscope  to  reveal 
their  shapes.  Each  one  of  these  atoms,  so  imma- 
terial and  buoyant  as  to  be  almost  without  gravi- 
ty, floating  away  upon  the  slightest  breath,  or 
even  wafted  upward  by  currents  of  w^arm  air  from 
the  heated  earth,  has  within  itself  the  power  of  re- 
producing another  clump  of  puff-balls  if  only  fort- 
une shall  finally  lodge  it  in  congenial  soil.     These 


138  EYE   SPY 

spores  are  thus  analogous  to  the  seeds  of  ordinary 
plants.  We  have  seen  the  myriadfold  dispersion 
of  its  potential  atoms  in  the  cloud  of  spore-smoke 
from  the  puff-ball,  but  who  ever  thinks  of  a  spore- 
cloud  from  a  mushroom  or  a  toadstool  ?  Yet  the 
same  method  is  followed  by  all  the  other  fungi, 
but  with  less  conspicuousness.  The  puff-ball 
gives  a  visible  salute,  but  any  one  of  the  common 
mushrooms  or  toadstools  will  afford  us  a  much 
prettier  and  more  surprising  account  of  itself  if 
we  but  give  it  the  opportunity.  This  big  yellow 
toadstool  out  under  the  poplar-tree,  its  golden  cap 
studded  with  brownish  scurfy  warts,  its  under  sur- 
face beset  with  closely  plaited  laminae  or  gills, 
who  could  ever  associate  the  cloud  of  dry  smoke 
with  this  moist,  creamy-white  surface  ?  We  may 
sit  here  all  day  and  watch  it  closely,  but  we  shall 
see  no  sign  of  anything  resembling  smoke  or 
dust.  But  even  so,  a  filmy  mist  is  continually 
floating  away  from  beneath  its  golden  cap,  the 
eager  breeze  taking  such  jealous  care  of  the  con- 
tinual  shower  that  our  eyes  fail  to  perceive  a  hint 
of  it. 

Do  you  doubt  it.?  You  need  wait  but  a  few 
moments  for  a  proof  of  the  fact  in  a  pretty  exper- 
iment, which,  when  once  observed,  will  certainly 
be  resorted  to  as  a  frequent  pastime  in  leisure 
moments  when  the  toadstool  or  mushroom  is  at 
hand. 


Spore  Surface  of  a  Polyporus 

Here  is  a  very  ordinary  •  looking  specimen 
growing  beside  the  stone  steps  at  our  back  door 
perhaps.  Its  top  is  gray;  its  gills  beneath  are  fawn- 
color.  We  may  shake  it  as  rudely  as  we  will,  and 
yet  we  shall  get  no  response  such  as  the  puff-ball 
will  give  us.  But  let  us  lay  it  upon  a  piece  of 
white  paper,  gills  downward,  on  the  mantel,  and 
cover  it  with  a  tumbler  or  finger-bowl,  so  as  to  ab- 
solutely exclude  the  least  admission  of  air.  At 
the  expiration  of  five  minutes,  perhaps,  we  may 
detect  a  filmy,  pinkish-yellow  tint  on  the  paper, 
following  beneath  the  upraised  border  of  the  cap, 
like  a   shadow   faintly   lined   with   white.      In   a 


Spore  Surface  of  an  Agaricini 


I40  EVE    SPY 

quarter  of  an  hour  the  tinted  deposit  is  percepti- 
ble across  the  room  ;  and  in  an  hour,  if  we  care- 
fully raise  the  mushroom,  the  perfect  spore-print 
is  revealed  in  all  its  beauty — a  pink-brown  disk 
with  a  white  centre,  which  represents  the  point  of 
contact  of  the  cut  stem,  and  white  radiating  lines, 
representing  the  edges  of  the  thin  gills,  many  of 
them  as  fine  and  delicate  as  a  cobweb. 

Every  fresh  species  will  yield  its  surprise  in  the 
markings  and  color  of  the  prints. 

These  spore-deposits  are  of  course  fugitive,  and 
will  easily  rub  off  at  the  slightest  touch.  But  in- 
asmuch as  many  of  these  specimens,  either  from 
their  beauty  of  form  or  exquisite  color,  or  for  edu- 
cational or  scientific  purposes,  it  will  be  desirable 
to  preserve,  I  append  simple  rules  for  the  mak- 
ing of  the  prints  by  a  process  by  which  they  will 
become  effectually  "fixed,"  and  thus  easily  kept 
without  injury. 

DIRECTIONS    FOR    MAKING    A   MUSHROOM    SPORE-PRINT 

Take  a  piece  of  smooth  white  writing-paper 
and  coat  its  surface  evenly  with  a  thin  solution  of 
gum-arabic,  dextrine,  or  other  mucilage,  and  allow 
it  to  dry.  Pin  this,  gummed  side  uppermost,  to  a 
board  or  table,  preferably  over  a  soft  cloth,  so  that 
it  will  lie  perfectly  flat.  To  insure  a  good  print  the 
mushroom  specimen  should  be  fresh  and  firm,  and 
the  gills' or  spore-surface  free  from  breaks  or  bruises. 


Cut  the  stem  off 
about  level  with  the 
gills,  then  lay  the  mush- 
room, spore  -  surface 
dowiiward,  upon  the  paper,  and  cover  with  a  tum- 
bler, finger-bowl,  or  other  vessel  with  a  smooth, 
even  rim,  to  absolutely  exclude  the  slightest  in- 
gress of  air. 

After  a  few  hours  have  passed  by,  perhaps  even 
less,  the  spores  will  be  seen  through  the  glass  on 
the  paper  at  the  extreme  edge  of  the  mushroom, 
their  depth  of  color  indicating  the  density  of  the 
deposit.  If  we  now  gently  lift  the  glass,  and  with 
the  utmost  care  remove  the  fungus,  perhaps  by 
the  aid  of  pins  previously  inserted,  in  d^  perfectly 


142  EYE   SPY 

vertical  direction,  without   the  slightest  side  mo- 
tion, the  spore-print  in  all  its  beauty  will  be  re- 
vealed— perhaps  a  rich  brown  circular  patch  with 
exquisite  radiating  white  lines,  marking  the  direc- 
tion and  edges  of  the  gills,  if  an  Agaric ;  perhaps 
a  delicate   pink,  more   or  less  clouded   disk,  here 
and  there  distinctly  and  finely  honey-combed  with 
white  lines,  indicating  that  our  specimen  is  one  of 
the    polypores,  as   a   Boletus.     Other  prints   will 
yield  rich  golden  disks,  and  there  will  be  prints 
of  red,  lilac,  greens,  oranges,  salmon -pinks,  and 
browns  and  purples,  variously  lined  in  accordance 
with  the  number  and  nature  of  the  gills  or  pores. 
Occasionally  we  shall  look  in  vain  for  our  print, 
which  may  signify  that  our  specimen  had  already 
scattered  its  spores  ere  we  had  found  it,  or,  what 
is  more  likely,  that  the  spores  are  invisible  upon 
the  paper,  owing  to  their  whiteness,  in  which  case 
a  piece  of  black  paper  must  be  substituted  for  the 
white  ground,  when  the  response  will  be  beauti- 
fully manifest  in  a  white  tracery  upon  the  black 
background.      One   of   these,  from   the   Amanita 
muscarius,  is   reproduced   in   our  illustration.     If 
the  specimen  is  left  too  long,  the  spore -deposit 
is  continued  upward  between  the  gills,  and  may 
reach  a  quarter  of  an   inch   in   height,  in   which 
case,  if  extreme  care  in  lifting  the  cap  is  used,  we 
observe  a  very  realistic  counterfeit  of  the  gills  of 
the  mushroom  in  high  relief  upon  the  paper.     A 


MUSHROOM    SPORE-PRINTS  I43 

print  of  this  kind  is  of  course  very  fragile,  and 
must  be  handled  with  care.  But  a  comparatively 
slight  deposit  of  the  spores,  without  apparent 
thickness,  will  give  us  the  most  perfect  print,  while 
at  the  same  time  yielding  the  full  color.     Such  a 


print  may  also  be  fixed  by  our  present  method  so 
as  to  withstand  considerable  rough  handling,  all 
that  is  required  being  to  lay  the  print  upon  a  wet 
towel  until  the  moisture  has  penetrated  through 
the  paper  and  reached  the  gum.  The  spores  are 
thus  set,  and,  upon  drying  the  paper,  are  quite  se- 


144  ^^^^  ^^"^^ 

curely  fixed.     Indeed,  the  moisture  often  exuded 

by  the  confined  fungus  beneath  the  glass  proves 

sufficient    to   dampen   the  mucilage   and   set   the 

spores. 

A  number  of  prints  may  be  obtained  from  a 
single  specimen. 

To  those  of  my  readers  interested  in  the  sci- 
ence of  this  spore-shower  I  give  sectional  illus- 
trations of  examples  of  the  two  more  common 
groups  of  mushrooms  —  the  Agaric,  or  gilled 
mushroom,  and  the  Polyporus,  or  tube -bearing 
mushroom.  The  entire  surface  of  both  gills  and 
pores  is  lined  with  the  spore-bearing  membrane, 
or  hymenium,  the  spores  falling  directly  beneath 
their  point  of  departure  as  indicated;  in  the  case 
of  the  Agaric,  in  radiating  lines  in  correspond- 
ence with  the  spaces  between  the  gills,  and  in 
Polyporus  in  a  tiny  pile  directly  beneath  the  open- 
ing of  each  pore. 


HE  title  of  this  article  will  doubtless 
recall  to  readers  of  "  Harper's  Young 
People"*  a  paper  upon  a  similar 
subject  which  appeared  in  my  calendar  series 
two  years  ago.  With  the  title  the  resemblance 
ends,  for  the  cocoons  which  I  am  about  to  de- 
scribe are  of  a  sort  that  has  never  been  men- 
tioned in  any  previous  article.  These  curious 
cocoons  had  been  familiar  to  me  since  my  boy- 
hood, having  long  excited  my  wonder  before 
finally  revealing  their  mystery.  They  have  re- 
cently been  brought  freshly  to  my  notice  by  a 
letter  that  I  have  received,  accompanied  by  a  box 
of  specimens,  which  reads  as  follows : 

*  Now  "  Harper's  Round  Table." 


146  EYE   SPY 

Dear  Mr.  Gibson, — I  have  sent  you  to-day  what  I  take  to 
be  three  cocoons.  These  with  three  others  I  picked  up  from  a 
gravel-walk  in  Po'keepsie  over  a  year  ago.  They  seemed  con- 
nected at  the  ends,  but  easily  broke  apart.  I  kept  them,  pur- 
posing to  see  what  would  emerge,  but  nothing  has  rewarded  my 
watch,  and  they  seem  now  to  be  shrivelling  up.  Can  you  give 
me  any  information  in  regard  to  them  ?  If  so,  I  shall  be  very 
grateful  to  you. 

I  had  barely  read  half  through  the  brief  de- 
scription when  I  guessed  the  nature  of  the  co- 
coons in  question,  having  received  similar  letters 
before,  as  well  as  verbal  queries,  from  others  who 
had  been  puzzled  by  the  non  -  committal  speci- 
mens. The  fact  that  they  were  found  "  on  the 
gravel-walk,"  and  were  loosely  "  connected  at  the 
ends,"  was  in  itself  strong  evidence  of  their  ques- 
tionable nature,  and  I  felt  sure  that  I  should  rec- 
ognize the  cocoons  as  old  friends.     And  I  did. 

Upon  opening  the  box,  I  found  three  of  them 
packed  in  a  mass  of  cotton,  two  of  them  still 
loosely  attached  at  the  ends,  the  third  one  some- 
what disintegrated.  Each  was  about  an  inch  in 
length,  and  half  an  inch  in  thickness,  somewhat 
egg  or  cocoon  shaped.  Upon  being  separated, 
one  end  of  each  was  seen  to  be  hollow^ed  out,  and 
had  thus  previously  received  the  pointed  end  of 
its  fellow  in  the  "connected"  condition  in  which 
they  had  been  found.  In  color  they  were  a 
mouse  gray  precisely,  and  to  the  careless  observer 
might  have  appeared  to  consist  of  caterpillar  silk, 


SOME   CURIOUS   COCOONS 


^M 


though  in  reality  having  a  substance  more  like 
felt.  Yes,  they  might  easily  be  mistaken  for  co- 
coons if  we  simply  contented  ourselves  with  look- 


ing at  them. 


Who,  by  a  mere  glance,  could  imagine  the  ma- 
terials that  the  little  bird  called  the  vireo  employs 


in  building  her  peculiar  nest.f*  The  reader  will 
remember  how  we  pulled  one  of  those  nests  apart, 
and  what  strange  materials  we  found  woven  in 
its  fabric*  But  they  were  hardly  more  surpris- 
ing than  we  may  discover  within  this  sly  cocoon 
if  we  dissect  it.  Now,  to  beg^in  with,  a  true  co- 
coon  is  not  solid  to  the  core,  as  this  one  evi- 
dently, is  as  we  press  it  between  our  fingers,  nor 
can  you  pinch  off  a  tuft  of  gray  hair  from  the  sur- 

*  See  "  Sharp  Eyes,"  page  220. 


148  EYE   SPY 

face  of  an  ordinary  cocoon  when  you  will.  True, 
there  are  some  cocoons  into  whose  silk  meshes 
the  caterpillar  weaves  the  hair  of  its  body,  but  the 
felt  thus  formed  is  only  a  shell,  and  is  intermeshed 
with  silken  webs,  and  one  pinch  alone  will  open 
up  the  hollow  interior  and  show  us  the  caterpillar 
or  chrysalis  within.  Such,  for  instance,  is  the  lit- 
tle brown  winter  snuggery  of  the  woolly -bear 
caterpillar  which  we  all  know,  and  whose  prickly 
cocoons  may  be  found  beneath  stones  and  logs  in 
the  fields. 

But  what  do  we  find  in  these  cocoons  that  we 
now  have  before  us  ?  Not  only  is  there  no  ves- 
tige of  silk  to  be  seen,  but  there  are  hairs  enough 
in  this  single  cocoon  to  have  supplied  a  hun- 
dred caterpillars,  while  we  look  in  vain  for  any 
sign  of  the  spinner  within.  Indeed,  there  is  no 
within ;  pinch  after  pinch  reveals  nothing  but  the 
same  gray  felt.  We  are  now  a  quarter  of  an 
inch  below  the  surface,  when  another  pinch  brings 
with  it  a  small  mass  of  white  specks  like  crumbs 
intermingled  with  the  hair,  and  in  the  hollow  thus 
deepened  we  observe  a  shiny  white  object  like 
ivory,  with  a  minute  ball  at  its  tip.  It  certainly 
looks  like  a  tiny  bone.  We  impatiently  break 
open  the  cocoon,  when  we  see  in  truth  a  bone — 
indeed,  a  compact  mass  of  bones  from  some  very 
small  animal,  whose  identity  we  may  guess  from 
the  mouse-color  of  the  felt.     Here  is  the  femur  of 


?^ 


<^^ 


a  field-mouse — two  of  them — also  a  part  of  the 
fibula,  and  a  dozen  or  more  other  bones.  Break- 
ing asunder  the  mass  further,  we  find  a  few  tiny 
teeth ;  and  as  we  continue  the  process  in  the  re- 
maining two  specimens,  we  bring  to  light  parts  of 
the  skull,  ribs,  and  vertebrce.  A  strange  "co- 
coon "  indeed. 

A  further  examination  of  the  remaining  speci- 
mens disclosed  similar  ingredients,  until  the  en- 
tire mass  presented  a  collection  somewhat  like 
that  shown  in  my  illustration. 

I  well  remember  my  first  encounter  with  the 
queer  specimens,  and  what  mysteries  they  were, 
though  the  "cocoon"  idea  had  never  suggested 
itself  to  me,  the  felted  mass  having  been  found  in 


'^^Itp:- 


.;    a  disintegrated 
.  state. 

It  was  on  a 
winters  day,  in 
a  walk  on  the  crusted 
snow,  during  my  early 
boyhood.     Returning 
by     the     brink    of    a 
stream,   I     noticed    a 
little  gray  mass 
of    fur    on    the 
snow,  which  on 
examination 
disclosed    nu- 
merous    bones 
of  what  I  took 
to   be  field-mice  and 
parts  of  the  anatomy 
of   a    mole    intermin- 
gled   with     the    hair. 
No   vestige    of    flesh 
appeared  in  the  mass, 
and  I  fell  to  wonder- 
ing  what    manner  of 
disease    is    this    with 
which    the     m  o  u  s  e 
world  is  afflicted  that 
should    consume    the 
flesh  and  leave  noth- 


SOME   CURIOUS   COCOONS  151 

ing  but  a  disjointed  skeleton  and  a  tiny  pile  of 
fur.  Ah,  had  I  only  known  then  what  I  dis- 
covered a  year  or  two  later — the  secret  of  that 
big  hollow  in  the  willow -tree  above  -  my  little 
pile  of  fur  and  bones  would  easily  have  been 
explained,  for  there  summer  after  summer  sat 
the  little  brown  screech-owl,  blinking  in  the  sun 
at  her  doorway,  peeping  through  the  tiny  cracks 
of  her  closed  eyelids  at  noon,  and  at  midnight 
commanding  a  view  of  the  entire  surrounding 
sedgy  swamp  in  her  eager  quest  for  the  first  un- 
fortunate shrew  or  deer-mouse  that  should  peep 
its  nose  out  of  its  nest  or  venture  across  the  ice 
in  the  field  of  her  staring  vision. 

The  new-fallen  snow  would  doubtless  show  as 
many  telltales  of  midnight  tragedies  among  the 
little  bead-eyed  folk — the  tiny  trail  terminating  in 
a  drop  of  blood,  and  a  suggestive  ruffling  of  the 
surrounding  snow,  with  its  plain  witness  of  the 
fatal  swoop  of  "owl  on  muffled  wing"  from  its 
vantage-ground  here  in  the  willow-tree.  To-night 
our  little  deer -mouse  ventured  too  far  from  its 
nest  among  the  tussocks.  To-morrow  night  all 
that  will  be  left  of  its  sprightly  squeaking  identity 
will  be  a  tiny  pile  of  fur  and  bones  disgorged  in 
the  form  of  pellets  from  the  open  beak  of  the  owl 
on  the  willow-tree. 

In  regard  to  these  specimen  pellets  which  my 
correspondent  has  sent  to  me  for   identification, 


I  am  not  prepared 
to  affirm  that  they 
are  from  the  di- 
gestive laboratory 
of  the  owl.  Some- 
thing in  their  size 
that  a 
equally 


likely  to  be  respon 
sible  for  them,  all 
the  birds  of  prey  hav- 
ing this  same  singular 
habit  of  ejecting  the  in- 
digestible portions  of 
animals  which  they  de- 
vour. A  pet  red-tailed 
hawk  which  I  kept  dur- 
ing the  past  summer  lit- 
tered its  pen  with  pellets 


SOME   CURIOUS   COCOONS  153 

of  a  similar  size  and  consistency  to  these,  varied 
on  one  occasion  with  a  number  composed  entirely 
of  grass,  which  explained  a  singular  puzzle  of  the 
day  previous,  when  I  descried  my  hawk  with  its 
craw  largely  distended,  and  wondered  what  squir- 
rel or  chipmonk  or  snake  had  been  thus  caught 
napping  in  my  absence. 


4 


Ir 


i/- 


ERY  few  of  our  read- 
^   .  ^         ers   will    need   an    in- 

troduction to  the  net- 
/^l^^  tie.     It  is,  perhaps,  the 

one  plant  which  may 
\  claim  the  largest  num- 

ber  of  intimate  ac- 
quaintances. It  was  Dr.  Cul- 
pepper, the  old-time  herbal- 


*/: : 


« 


ist,    I    believe,  who   claimed, 
^^  J  moreover,   that    it    was   one 

of   the    easiest    of  plants    to 
distinguish,  in  proof  of  which 
he    afiirmed    that   "  it   could 
be  found  even  on  the  dark- 
est  night  by   simply  feeling 
for   it."      Even    those    most 
ignorant   of   botany,  after   having   once  "scraped 
acquaintance,"  as  it  wiere,  with  the  nettle,  find  it 
to  their  interest  to  keep  its  memory  green. 


XETTLK-I.EAF   TEXT-RUILDERS  155 

It  is  partly  because  it  is  so  well  known,  and 
partly  because  so  few  people  use  their  eyes  ana- 
lytically, that  a  certain  little  mystery  of  the  plant 
is  so  well  guarded.  For  almost  any  bed  of  nettles 
may  well  tempt  the  young  entomologist  to  tarry, 
while  he  forgets  the  tingling  fingers  as  he  fills  his 
collecting-box  with  welcome   specimens. 

We  are  sure  to  have  company  if  we  linger  long 
about  our  nettles.  There  is  a  small  brood  of 
butterflies  which  we  can  always  count  upon.  Here 
is  one  of  them  coming  over  the  meadow.  It  has 
a  sharp  eye  for  nettles,  and  is  even  now  on  the 
lookout  for  them.  In  a  moment  more  its  beauti- 
ful black,  scarlet-bordered  and  white-spotted  wings 
are  seen  fluttering  among  the  leaves,  alighting 
now  here,  now  there,  each  brief  visit  leaving  a 
visible  witness  if  we  care  to  look  for  it.  It  has 
now  settled  upon  a  leaf  within  easy  reach.  Creep- 
ing along  its  edge,  it  is  soon  hanging  beneath, 
but  only  for  a  second,  and  is  off  again  on  the 
wing.  Let  us  pluck  the  leaf.  Upon  looking  be- 
neath it  we  may  see  the  pretty  token  of  the  Red 
Admiral,  a  tiny  egg  which  we  may  well  preserve 
for  our  microscope. 

We  shall  not  wait  long  before  another  butterfly 
visitor  arrives,  smaller  than  the  last,  and  with  its 
deep  orange,  black -spotted  wings  conspicuously 
jagged  at  the  edges — one  of  the  "  angle-wings," 
which    immediately    announces    his   name    as  he 


156  EYE   SPY 

alights  with  wings  folded  close  above  his  back, 
disclosing  the  silver  "  comma  "  in  the  midst  of 
the  dull  brown  of  the  nether  surface.  jMany  are 
the  tiny  tokens  which-  she  also  leaves  behind 
her  as  she  flutters  away  in  search  of  a  new  nettle- 
clump. 

We  have  been  closely  observing  these  two  but- 
terflies perhaps  for  half  an  hour,  and  during  that 
time  our  eyes  have  rested  a  dozen  times  upon  a 
condition  of  things  here  among  the  leaves  which 
certainly  should  have  immediately  arrested  our 
attention.  Almost  within  touch  of  our  hand,  upon 
one  stalk,  are  three  leaves  which  certainly  do  not 
hang  like  their  fellows.  One  of  them  has  been 
drawn  up  at  the  edges,  and  fully  one-half  of  its 
lower  portion  is  gone,  while  its  angle  of  drooping 
indicates  more  than  the  mere  weight  of  the  leaf. 
"  A  spider's  nest,  of  course,"  you  remark.  As 
such  it  has  been  passed  a  thousand  times  even  by 
young  and  enthusiastic  entomological  students 
who  would  have  risked  their  lives  for  a  "cecropia" 
or  a  "  bull's-eye  "  caterpillar,  or  stung  their  hands 
mercilessly  as  they  swept  their  butterfly  net  among 
those  very  stinging  leaves.  It  is  interesting  to 
gather  a  few  of  these  "  spider's  nests,"  and  examine 
the  cause  of  their  heavy  droop,  which  proves  to 
be  a  healthy-looking  gray  caterpillar  an  inch  or 
more  in  length,  covered  with  formidable  spines, 
perpetuating  as  it  were  the  tendency  of  its  foster= 


NETTLE-LEAF   TENT-BUILDERS 


r'm^^-.p 


157 


% 


//.'<■ 


f^)^' 


plant.     Only  yesterday 
he    built    himself    this 
tent,  having  abandoned 
the   remnant    tent  just    below,  for   he   eats    him- 
self   out    of    house    and    home    every    couple   of 


158  EYE   SPY 

days.  About  five  weeks  ago  he  began  his  ca- 
reer, his  first  meal  consisting,  perhaps,  of  the 
iridescent  shell  of  a  tiny  egg — precisely  such  a 
one  as  our  first  butterfly  visitor  has  just  left,  for 
this  is  the  caterpillar  of  the  Atalanta  or  Red 
Admiral. 

We  may  find  a  number  of  these  tents  if  we  look 
sharp,  and  even  while  gathering  them  may  over- 
look a  still  more  remarkable  roof-tree  of  another 
caterpillar,  which  constructs  its  pavilion  on  quite 
a  different  plan.  This,  too,  might  even  deceive  a 
"  spider,"  the  edges  of  the  leaves  being  drawn 
together  beneath,  and  the  veins  partly  severed  near 
the  stem,  giving  it  quite  a  steep  pitch.  Upon 
looking  beneath,  we  disclose  another  prickly  ten- 
ant somewhat  similar  to  the  first,  only  that  he  is 
yellow  and  black  instead  of  gray,  while  he  is 
clothed  with  the  same  complementary  growth  of 
branching  spines. 

A  single  nettle -clump  of  any  size  will  disclose 
dozens,  perhaps  hundreds,  of  these  tent-dwellers. 
Though  armed  with  formidable  chevaux-de-frise, 
these  species  are  stingless,  and  the  caterpillars 
may  be  safely  gathered.  The  object  of  my  direct- 
ing attention  to  them  is  not  simply  to  disclose 
them  in  their  haunts,  but  to  recommend  their 
transfer  to  our  collectino^-box,  lookinsj  to  the 
further  beautiful  surprise  —  always  a  surprise — 
which  they  have  in  store  for  us.     Although  they 


NETTLE-LEAF   TENT-BUILDERS  I  59 

quickly  desert  their  tents  in  captivity,  they  con- 
tinue to  feed  on  the  fresh  leaves  provided  from 
day  to  day,  and  suffer  little  in  confinement. 

The  full-grown  caterpillars  are  about  an  inch 
and  a  half  in  length,  and  if  our  specimens  average 
such  dimensions  we  shall  not  have  many  days  to 
wait  for  our  surprise.  Perhaps  to-morrow,  as  we 
open  the  lid  of  our  box,  the  caterpillars  will  be 
seen  to  have  left  the  leaves,  and  to  be  scattered 
here  and  there  on  the  lid  or  walls  of  their  prison 
in  apparent  listlessness.  Let  us  observe  this  in- 
dividual here  beneath  the  box  cover.  Its  body  is 
bent  in  a  curve,  and  a  careful  inspection  reveals  a 
carpet  of  glistening  silk,  to  which  it  clings.  Now 
the  insect  regains  confidence,  and  takes  up  the 
thread  which  it  dropped  a  moment  ago  when  the 
box  was  opened,  its  head  moving  from  side  to  side 
in  a  motion  suggesting  a  figure  8,  with  variations. 
Gradually,  through  the  lapse  of  several  minutes, 
this  sweep  is  concentrated  to  a  more  central  point, 
which  is  at  length  raised  into  a  minute  tuft  of 
silk ;  and  if  we  wait  and  watch  for  a  few  moments 
longer,  we  shall  see  our  spinner  turn  about  and 
clasp  this  tuft  with  its  hinder  pair  of  feet.  And 
this  same  process  has  been  going  on  in  different 
parts  of  our  box.  Lifting  the  lid  an  hour  or  two 
later,  we  find  the  interior  full  of  the  caterpillars 
dangling  by  their  tails,  each  with  its  body  forming 
a  loop. 


l6o  EYE   SPY 

Twenty-four  hours  after  this  suspension  a  sin- 
gular  feat   and    a   beautiful    transformation   take 

o 

place,  a  revelation  which,  as  I  have  said,  even  to 
those  already  familiar  with  it,  is  always  new  and 
surprising.  Here,  indeed,  may  we  observe  "  the 
miraculous  in  the  common," 

It  is  as  though  our  box  had  met  with  some  en- 
chantment  beneath   the  wand  of  Midas   or  Iris; 
for  is  it  not,  indeed,  a  box  of  jewels  that  is  now 
disclosed,    a    treasury   of 
quaint   golden  ear-drops 
— -^       ^^^  of    a    fashioning    unlike 

^^  any    to    be     seen     in    a 

'^^  *  show-case,    but     which 

""'^-^  might    well    serve    as    a 

^^  '^y  ;,  ./,  rare    model    for   the    mi- 

^•*^'  -     ^.  .  ''^'*  metic  art  of  the  jeweller? 

When  we  consider  the 
length  to  which  these 
exquisite  artisans  will  go  for  their  natural  origi- 
nals—  the  orchids  in  gems,  beetles  in  jewelled 
enamel,  butterflies  in  brilliants  and  emeralds  and 
i-Lii^ies — need  we  wonder  that  this  one  most  sig- 
nificant model  of  nature's  own  jewelry,  appar- 
ently designed  as  a  tempting  pendant,  should 
have  been  ignored  by  a  class  of  designers  to 
whom  its  claims  would  seem  irresistible  ?  But 
we  forget.  The  jeweller  is  not  necessarily  an 
entomoloG:ist    or    naturalist.      The    butterfly,  the 


NETTLE-LEAF   TENT-BUILDERS  l6l 

beetle,  the  flower,  every  one  sees ;  how  few  even 
dream  of  these  glowing  chrysalids  (aurelias)  which 
hang  beneath  the  nettle  leaves  or  in  unseen  cov- 
erts among  the  hop  or  thistle  ? 

I  have  looked  in  vain  anions  all  the  desiorns  in 
the  shops  for  any  hint  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
thing  as  the  aurelia  of  Archippus,  comma,  semi- 
colon, Red  Admiral,  Hunters,  White  J.;  and,  in- 
deed, even  if  wrought  to  imitative  perfection,  how 
few  would  recognize  any  resemblance  to  aught  on 
the  earth  or  in  the  waters  under  the  earth  ! 

I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  this  living  gem 
of  our  "comma."  There  are  degrees  in  its  brill- 
iancy, an  occasional  specimen  being  almost  a  mass 
of  o-old.  Indeed,  we  need  scarce  wonder  that  the 
aurelia  should  have  proved  so  tempting  a  lure  to 
the  ancient  alchemists. 

Almost  any  group  of  nettles  will  show  us  our 
"comma"  caterpillar,  but  one  of  its  favorite  haunts 
is  the  wood  -  nettle,  a  large  -  leaved,  low  variety, 
which  is  to  be  found  in  moist  woods  and  shady 
river-banks,  and  will  be  recognized  by  the  illustra- 
tion on  the  preceding  page.  I  have  gathered 
many  of  these  animated  tented  leaves  in  a  few 
moments'  search  among  the  plants. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  wonderful  transfor- 
mation of  the  caterpillar  to  its  chrysalis,  and  the 
astonishing  trick  by  which  the  latter  gets  out  ot 
its  skin,  and  again  catches  the  silken  loop  with  its 


1 62  EYE   SPY 

tail.  This  feat  is  well  worth  a  close  study;  the 
authorities  in  the  past  have  all  been  at  sixes  and 
sevens  as  to  what  really  takes  place.  Which  of 
our  boys  or  girls  can  discover  the  facts  as  they 
are,  and  tell  us  why  the  chrysalis  does  not  fall  out 
at  the  last  moment  ? 


The 
Evening   Primrose 


r^-py. 


HE  summer  which 
is  allowed  to  pass 
without  a  visit  to 
the  twilight  haunt 
of  the  evening  prim- 
rose, perhaps  at  3'our  very 
door,  is  an  opportunity  missed. 
Night  after  night  for  weeks  it 
breathes  its  fragrant  invitation  as  its 
luminous  blooms  flash  out  one  by  one  from  the 
clusters  of  buds  in  the  gloom,  as  though  in  eager 
response  to  the  touch  of  some  wandering  sprite, 
until  the  darkness  is  lit  up  with  their  luminous 
galaxy  —  that  beautiful  episode  of  blossom-  con-, 
sciousness  and  hope  so  picturesquely  described 
by  Keats : 


164  EYE   SPY 

"A  tuft  of  evening  primroses 
O'er  which  the  wind  may  hover  till  it  dozes. 
O'er  which  it  well  might  take  a  pleasant  sleep, 
But  that  'tis  ever  startled  by  the  leap 
Of  buds  into  ripe  flowers." 

Nor  is  it  necessary  to  brave  the  night  air  to 
witness  this  sudden  transformation.  A  cluster  of 
the  flowers  placed  in  a  vase  beneath  an  evening 
lamp  will  reveal  the  episode,  though  robbed  of  the 
poetic  attribute  of  their  natural  sombre  environ- 
ment and  the  murmuring  response  of  the  twilight 
moth,  a  companion  to  which  its  form,  its  color,  and 
its  breath  of  perfume  and  impulsive  greeting  are 
but  the  expression  of  a  beautiful  divine  affinity. 

Then  there  is  that  pretty  daylight  mystery  of 
the  faded,  drooping  bells  of  last  night's  impulsive 
blossoms,  each  perhaps  tenanted  by  the  tiny,  faith- 
ful moth  which  first  welcomed  its  open  twilight 
chalice,  and  which  now  has  crept  close  within  its 
wilted  cup,  the  yellow  tips  of  its  protruding  wings 
simulating  the  fading  petals.  And  again,  a  few 
weeks  later,  with  what  surprise  do  we  discover 
that  these  long  columns  of  green  seed -pods  are 
not  always  what  they  seem,  but  are  intermingled 
with  or  supplanted  by  smooth,  green  caterpillars 
which  exactly  resemble  them  in  size  and  general 
shape,  the  progeny  of  our  tiny  pink  and  yellow 
moth  now  feeding  on  the  young  seed -pods! 
Verily  even  a  vireo  or  worm -eating  warbler,  who 
is  supposed  to  know  a  green  caterpillar  when  he 


THE   EVENING   PRIMROSE  165 

sees  one,  might  perch  among  these  without  a  sus- 
picion, except  perhaps  at  the  tickling  of  its  feet 
by  the  rudely  touched  victim. 

But  these  are  not  all  the  interesting  features  of 
the  evening  primrose.  It  has  still  another  curi- 
ous secret,  which  has  doubtless  puzzled  many  a 
country  stroller,  and  which  is  suggested  in  the 
following  inquiry  from  a  rural  correspondent : 

"I  read  in  'Harper's  Young  People'  your  piece  about  the 
evening  primrose,  and  found  the  little  moth  and  the  catterpilers, 
what  I  never  seen  before ;  but  they  is  one  thing  what  you  never 
tole  us  about  yit.  Why  is  it  that  the  buds  on  so  meny  evening 
primroses  swell  up  so  big  and  never  open  ?  Some  of  them  has 
holes  into  them,  but  I  never  seen  nothing  cum  out." 

This  same  question  must  have  been  mentally 
propounded  by  many  observers  who  have  noted 
this  singular  peculiarity  of  the  buds — two  sorts  of 
buds,  one  of  them  long  and  slender,  and  with  a 
longer  tube ;  the  other  short  and  stout,  with  no 
tube  at  all — both  of  which  are  shown  in  proper 
proportion  in  my  illustration.  It  is  well  to  con- 
trast their  outward  form,  and  to  note  wherein  they 
differ.  In  the  normal  or  longer  bud  the  tube  is 
slender,  and  extended  to  a  length  of  an  inch  or 
more,  while  in  the  shorter  specimen  this  portion 
is  reduced  to  about  a  fifth  or  sixth  of  that  length, 
while  the  corolla  enclosed  within  its  sepals  is 
much  shortened  and  swollen. 

The  difference  in  the  shape  and  development 
of  these  two  buds  is  a  most  interesting  study,  as 


i66 


EYE   SPY 


bearing  upon  the  conscious  intention  of  the  flower 
as  an  embodiment  of  a  divine  companion  to  an 
insect.  What  is  the  intention  involved  in  the 
construction  and  habit  of  this  flower?  Why  this 
long  tube  ?  Why  does  it 
await  the  twilight  to  burst 
into  bloom  ? 
^^  In  the  new  botany  of 
Darwin  flowers  must  be 
""  considered  as  embodiments 
of  welcome  to  insects. 
Long  ago  it  was  discov- 
ered that  the  powdery  pol- 
len of  a  flower  must  reach 
the  stigma  of  the  flower  in 
order  to  produce  seed.  It 
was  formerly  supposed  that 
this  was  naturally  accom- 
plished by  the  stamens 
shedding  this  pollen  directly  upon  the  stigma, 
but  this  was  later  shown  to  be  impossible  in 
most  flowers,  the  anthers  containing  the  pollen 
being  so  placed  that  they  could  not  thus  con- 
vey the  pollen.  This  fact  was  first  noted  by 
Sprengel  in  1787,  who  was  the  first  to  discover 
that  the  flower,  with  its  color,  perfume,  and  honey, 
was  really  designed  to  attract  insects,  and  that 
only  by  their  unconscious  aid  could  the  pollen  be 
thus  carried   to  the  stigma.      But   Sprengel  had 


supposed  that  the  intention  of 
the  blossom  was  the  reception 
of  its  own  pollen,  a  fact  which 


ite'. 


*•'"      was  again   soon 
seen   to   be   im- 
possible, as    the   stigmas 
of  many  flowers  are  closed  when 
their  own  pollen  is  being  shed. 
It  remained  for  Darwin  seventy 
years  later  to  interpret  the  prob- 
lem.   Insects  were  intentionally 
attracted  to  the  flower;  but  the  pollen 
with  which  their  bodies  thus  became 
dusted  was  designed  to  be  carried  to 
the  stigmas  of  another  flower,  show- 
ing cross-fertilization  to  be   the  in- 
tention in  nearly  all  blossoms. 


1 68 


EYE   SPY 


The  endless  shapes  of  flowers  were  shown  by 
Darwin  to  have  reference  to  certain  insects  upon 
whom  the  flower  depended  for  the  transfer  of  its 
pollen.  What  are  we  to  infer  from  the  shape  of 
our  evening  primrose?  Its  tube  is  long  and  slen- 
der, and  the  nectar  is  secreted  at  its  farthest  ex- 
tremity. Only  a  tongue  an  inch 
or  so  in  length  could  reach  it. 
What  insects  have  tongues  of 
this  length  ?  Moths  and  but- 
terflies. The  primrose  blooms 
at  night,  when  butterflies  are 
asleep,  and  is  thus  clearly 
adapted  to  moths.  The  flower 
opens;  its  stigma  is  closed;  the 
projecting  stamens  scatter  the 
loose  pollen  upon  the  moth  as 
it  sips  close  at  the  blossom's 
throat,  and  as  it  flies  from  flower 
to  flower  it  conveys  it  to  other 
blossoms  whose  stigmas  are  matured.  The  ex- 
pression of  the  normal  bud  is  thus  one  of  afiinity 
and  hope. 

Our  friend  just  quoted  mentions  having  seen 
"  holes  "  on  the  other  swollen  buds,  and  there  is 
certain  to  be  a  hole  in  every  one  of  them  at  its 
maturity.  But  let  us  select  one  which  is  as  yet 
entire.  If  with  a  sharp  knife-point  we  cut  gently 
through  its  walls,  we   disclose  the  curious  secret 


THE   EVENING    PRIMROSE 


169 


of  its  abnormal  shape — "  the  worm  i'  the  bud,"  as 
shown  in  my  accompanying  sketch  —  and  what 
an  eloquent  story  of  blighted  hopes  its  interior 
condition  reveals  !  This  tiny  whitish  caterpillar 
which  we  disclose  in  the  petal  dungeon  has  been 
a  prisoner  since  its  birth,  during  the  early  growth 
of  the  bud.  One  by  one 
the  stamens  and  also 
the    stiofma    have    been 

o 

devoured  for  food,  until 
the  mere  vestiges  of 
them  now  remain.  With 
no  stamens  to  bequeath 
pollen,  and  no  stigma  to 
welcome  other  pollen, 
what  need  to  open  ? 
What  need  to  elongate 
a  corolla  tube  for  the 
tongue  of  a  moth  whose 

visit  could  render  no  functional  service  ?  So 
thus  our  blighted  buds  refuse  to  open,  where 
blooming  would  be  but  a  mockery.  This  tiny 
caterpillar  has  a  host  of  evening  primrose  blos- 
soms laid  to  his  door.  When  full  grown  he  is 
nearly  a  third  of  an  inch  in  length,  at  which 
time  he  concludes  to  leave  his  life -long  abode, 
which  explains  the  "hole"  through  the  base  of 
the  bud.  If  we  gather  a  few  of  these  buds 
and  place  them  in  a  small  box,  we  may  observe 


IJO  EYE   SPY 

the  remaining  life  history  of  the  insect.  After 
creeping  from  its  petal  home  it  immediately  spins 
a  delicate  white  silken  cocoon,  and  within  a  day 
or  so  changes  to  a  chrysalis.  At  the  expiration 
of  about  a  fortnight,  as  we  open  the  box,  we 
are  apt  to  liberate  one  or  more  tiny  gray  moths, 
which  upon  examination  we  are  bound  to  confess 
are  a  poor  recompense  for  the  blossom  for  which 
they  are  the  substitute. 

This  little  moth  is  shown  very  much  enlarged 
in  the  accompanying  illustration.  Its  upper 
wings  are  variously  mottled  with  gray  and  light 
brown,  and  thickly  fringed  at  their  tips,  while  the 
two  lower  wings  are  like  individual  feathers, 
fringed  on  both  sides  of  a  narrow  central. 

These  and  other  characters  ally  the  insect  with 
the  great  group  known  as  the  Tineidce,  of  which 
the  common  clothes  moth  is  a  notorious  example. 


jf 


^' 


OUNG  PEOPLE  readers  wil 
haps  recall  my  previous  reference 
to  the  whims  and  preferences  of 
the    birds    in    their    selection    of 
building  material.      The   unravel- 
ling of  deserted  nests  will   often 
prove   an   instructive    as   well    as 
humorously   entertaining    pastime,  re- 
vealing in  the   same  fabric   evidences 
of  great  sagacity  and  what  would  ap- 
pear perfectly   nonsensical   prejudices, 
with    an    occasional   piece    of  positive 
frivolity.      Thus    we    can    readily    see 
the  wisdom  in  the  selection   of  these 
strong  strips   of   milkweed   bark  with 
which  this  vireo's   or  yellow-warbler's 
nest  is  moored  to  the  forked  branch, 
or   the   strands  of   twine   with    which 


172  EYE   SPY 

the  Baltimore  oriole  suspends  its  deep  swinging 
hammock,   as   well    as    the    plentiful    meshing   of 
horse -hair  woven  through  the  body  of  the  nest. 
The  nest  of  the  orchard  oriole  is  even  more  re- 
markable as  a  piece  of  woven  texture.     Wilson, 
the  ornithologist,  by  careful  unravelling  of  a  grass 
strand  from  one  of  these  nests,  found  it  to  have 
been    passed    through    the   fabric    and    returned 
thirty-four  times,  the  strand  itself  being  only  thir- 
teen inches  long,  a  fact  which  prompted  an  old 
lady  friend   of  his  to   ask  "whether  it  would  be 
possible   to  teach   the   birds    to   darn   stockings." 
The  horse-hair  in  the  nest  of  the  hang-bird  gives 
it  a  wonderful  compact  strength,  capable  of  sus- 
taining a  hundred  times  the  weight  of  the  bird. 
Upon   unravelling   one,    I    found    it    intermeshed 
fourteen  times  in  the  length  of  ten  inches,  which 
would  probably  have  given  a  total  number  of  forty 
passes   in  the  full  length  of  the   hair.      No  one 
will  question  the   sagacity  which  such   materials 
imply;  but  what  is  to  be  said  of  a  bird  that  se- 
lects caterpillar-skins  as  a  conspicuous  adornment 
for  her    domicile?     And   here    is    a  vireo's   nest 
with  a  part  of  a  toad-skin  prominently  displayed 
on  its  exterior,  or  perhaps  a  specimen  such  as  I 
have    previously    described    abundantly    covered 
with   snake  -  skins.      These,  of  course,  are   whims 
pure  and  simple. 

In  the  linings  of  many  nests  we  find  an  equal 


THE   DANDELION   BURCLAR  1 73 

variety,  but  the  materials  are  selected  with  a  defi- 
nite purpose,  a  soft,  warm  bed  for  the  young  fledg- 
lings being  the  object  sought  by  the  parent  birds. 
To  this  end  we  find  many  nests  lined  with  what 
the  ornithologists  call  "soft  downy  substances." 
Examination  with  a  magnifying  glass  wall  some- 
times show  us  precisely  the  nature  of  this  down; 
whether  it  consists  of  wool  from  a  sheep  or  hair 
from  the  deer,  'coon,  goat,  or  horse ;  whether  it  is 
composed  of  fuzz  from  downy  leaves  or  spider- 
webs,  caterpillar  hairs,  or  cottony  seeds  of  plants. 
These  last  form  a  favorite  nest  lining  with  a  num- 
ber of  birds. 

I  remember  once  finding  a  beautiful  nest  of  a 
warbler  whose  outer  wall  was  strongly  woven  with 
Strands  of  milk-weed  bark,  but  the  whole  interior 
filled  with  a  felt  composed  of  dandelion  seeds,  and 
barely  anything  else.  The  nest  was  old  and 
weather-beaten,  and  the  mass  had  been  reduced 
to  a  consistency  resembling  thick  brown  paper, 
with  an  occasional  seed  protruding.  Originally 
this  soft  mass  must  have  been  at  least  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  in  thickness.  The  dandelion  seed  is 
an  occasional  ingredient  in  many  nests.  We  can 
readily  understand  how  a  bird  with  an  eye  to  a 
downy  snuggery  for  her  young  might  be  tempted 
to  gather  an  occasional  seed,  but  it  takes  a  host  of 
dandelion  seeds  to  make  a  thick  cushion  such  as 
this  which  I  have  mentioned,  and  we  might  well 


174  EYE   SPY 

wonder  at  the  labor  involved  in  the  accumulation 
of  such  a  mass.  A  cloudy  dandelion  ball  in  the 
grass  doubtless  looks  inviting  to  the  nest-builder, 
but  how  much  of  this  tuft  would  the  bird  be  able 
to  secure  in  her  bill  when  a  mere  touch  or  breath 
perhaps  is  sufficient  to  scatter  the  ball  to  the 
breeze?  No;  I  cannot  believe  my  bird  of  the 
dandelion  nest  wasted  her  energies  in  picking  up 
a  sino^le  seed  here  and  there  from  a  dandelion 
ball,  or  perhaps  on  the  wing.  A  discovery  of  a 
few  years  ago  has  shown  me  how  dandelion 
seeds  may  be  cleverly  gathered  by  a  shrewd  nest- 
builder,  and  how  a  whole  nest  may  be  feathered 
with  them  without  much  labor. 

For  some  years  I  was  puzzled  to  account  for  a 
peculiar  mutilation  which  I  often  observed  on  the 
dandelion.  It  was  always  at  the  same  place — the 
calyx  of  the  blossom  —  the  green  portion  which 
incloses  the  bud,  and,  after  blooming,  closes  again 
about  the  withered  flower,  and  so  remains  while 
the  seeds  are  growing.  Most  of  my  readers 
have  seen  dandelion  flowers  in  all  their  stashes  of 
growth.  The  flower  usually  blooms  for  three 
mornings.  By  this  time  all  the  tiny  yellow  flow- 
erets which  make  up  the  yellow  cushion  have 
bloomed.  The  green  calyx  now  closes,  to  remain 
closed,  for  a  week,  while  the  stem  generally  bends 
outward,  and  thus  draws  the  withered  flower  tow- 
ards the  ground,  often  hiding  it  beneath  the  leaves. 


^T:^^ 


f^^ 


Duiing  this  week 
of  retirement  the 
stem  continues  to 
wither  sideways, 
and  the  flower  is 
busy  ripening  its  seeds,  each 
yellow  floweret  having  a  seed 
of  its  own,  from  which  there 
grows  a  slender  hair-like  stalk 
with  a  tiny  feathered  parachute 
at  its  top.  Gradually  these  lit- 
tle feathery  ends  push  upward 
inside  the  calyx,  and  on  the 
seventh  day,  lo !  the  withered 
dandelion  has  appeared  again 
at  the  top  of  the  grass.  It  now  has  a  tiny  brown 
cap  at  its  top,  or  perhaps  has  just  lost  it,  and  gives 
us  a  glimpse  of  a  white  feathery  tuft  peeping 
from  its  top.  This  little  brown  withered  cap  is 
all  that  is  left  of  the  original  golden  blossom  of 
two  weeks   before,  now  a   shrivelled  mass,  which 


176  EYE    SPY 

has  gradually  been  pushed  upward  and  out  by  the 
growing  seed-tuft.  In  another  hour,  perhaps,  the 
calyx  will  again  open,  and  bend  down  against  the 
stem,  while  the  bed  at  the  bottom  to  which  the 
seeds  are  attached  will  round  upward  through  the 
feathers  outward  in  the  form  of  a  ball.  This 
rounded  seed-bed,  or  receptacle,  as  it  is  called  in 
our  botany,  shortly  withers,  and  the  winged  para- 
chutes take  flight  at  the  slightest  zephyr,  whereas 
at  first  a  smart  breeze  would  have  been  required. 

Now  all  this  is  by -the -way,  for  not  every  one 
understands  how  the  dandelion  ball  is  made.  I 
know  a  little  bird,  however,  who  has  found  it  out 
to  her  advantage.  I  have  just  alluded  to  a  cer- 
tain mutilation  of  this  calyx  which  puzzled  me.  I 
have  shown  one  of  these  calyxes  in  my  title  pict- 
ure, at  the  right,  one  -  half  of  it  being  torn  off, 
and  disclosing  a  cavity.  Where  are  the  seeds.? 
"  Ah  !  some  rare  caterpillar  has  done  this !"  I  ex- 
claimed, when  I  first  observed  the  burglary.  In 
vain    I    hunted   amonsf    the    leaves    to    find    him. 

o 

Again  and  again  I  found  my  rifled  dandelion,  but 
never  a  sign  of  the  burglar.  But  one  day  I  sur- 
prised him  at  his  work.  It  was  no  caterpillar, 
but  a  tiny,  black  bird  with  a  beautiful  rosy  band 
in  his  tail,  and  which  proved  to  be  that  butterfly 
among  the  birds,  the  redstart.  I  hardly  knew 
what  he  was  doing  out  there  among  the  dande- 
lions, and  presumed  he  was  after  my  mysterious 


THE   DANDELION    BURGLAR  177 

caterpillar,  until  I  chanced  to  see  him  alight  near 
by  with  a  white  tuft  in  his  bill.  Yes,  a  tuft  with 
feathery  parachutes  in  a  bunch  on  one  side  of  his 
bill,  and  a  compact  cluster  of  seeds  on  the  other. 

In  a  moment  I  was  among  the  dandelions  from 
which  he  had  flown,  and  soon  found  my  empty 
calyx,  from  which  an  entire  dandelion  ball  had 
been  taken  at  one  pinch.  I  lost  no  time  in  trac- 
ing out  the  nest  in  the  foot  of  an  apple-tree  close 
by.  A  dainty  fabric  it  was,  exquisitely  adorned 
with  gray  lichens  and  skeletonized  leaves,  its  inte- 
rior very  plentifully  lined  with  the  seeds  of  the 
dandelion,  more  so  than  is  usual  with  the  nests  of 
this  bird.  On  two  occasions  since  I  have  seen 
other  small  birds  of  the  warbler  kind  suspicious- 
ly rummaging  among  the  dandelions,  and  have 
afterwards  discovered  the  empty  calyx.  There  is 
probably  more  than  one  dandelion  burglar. 


b!<?s 


UITE  contrary  to  my  original  inten- 
tion, my  specimen  of  Muse  a  domes  tic  a, 
which  I  had  captured  at  random  to 
serve  as  my  model  in  the  present  chap- 
ter, has  suggested  that  I  begin  with  a 
Q,  and  after  some  expressive  criticism 
on  the  matter  I  have  at  last  consented 
to  humor  him,  especially  as  he  proved 
otherwise  a  most  unique  and  accom- 
modatins:  individual.  Bein^  in  need 
of  a  good,  healthy,  toe-twisting,  neck-twirling  spec- 
imen to  sit  for  his  portrait  in  an  illustration  for  a 
forthcoming  article  on  the  paper  wasp,  I  cast  my 
eye  about  my  easel.  There,  right  at  my  elbow, 
still  plying  his  never-ending  toilet,  I  beheld  him — 
strange  coincidence,  was  it  not }  A  sweep  of  my 
hand,  and  I  have  him!     And  in  a  moment  more, 


THE   TROUBLES   OF   THE    HOUSE-FLY  1 79 

with  the  tips  of  his  toes  besmeared  with  glue,  he 
is  a  secure  prisoner  on  the  white  paper  before  me. 
The  victim   having  served  his   purpose,  I  was 
preparing   to   drench    him   with    a  few  drops    of 
water  to   dissolve   his   bonds    and    set    him   free, 
when    I    happened    to    observe    a    feature    which 
had    before    escaped   my   notice.     The  glue   had 
chanced  to  secure  one  of  its  feet  well  beneath  its 
body,  and  now  that  it  was  released   I  discovered 
that   I  had   made  considerably   more   of  a  catch 
with   that    sweep   of   my   hand 
than  I  had  imagined.    Attached 
to  one  of  the  terminal  joints  of 
the  front  leg  there  appeared  a 
tiny    red    object,  which    I    in-  . 

stantly  recognized 
as  a  curious  tag 
which  I  had  seen 
before,  and  which 
forms  an  occasion- 
al lively  episode  in  the  life  not  only  of  house-flies 
but  other  flies  as  well.  And  what  a  queer-shaped 
tag  it  is,  to  be  sure !  It  is  not  easy  to  describe 
its  dimensions  on  account  of  its  changeable  pro- 
portions— now  spreading  out  its  two  long  appen- 
dages, now  contracting  into  an  oblong  or  rounded 
outline,  or  sprawled  out  in  the  shape  of  a  curious 
letter  T,  and  now  thrown  about  in  such  a  helter- 
skelter  fashion  by  the  antics  of  the  fly  that  noth- 


l8o  EYE   SPY 

ing  but  the  fact  of  its  red  color  is  discernible. 
But  when  we  bring  our  magnifying-glass  to  bear 
upon  it,  its  diminutive  size  is  forgotten,  while  its 
shape  is  now  perfectly  familiar  to  us  all — a  lob- 
ster! a  veritable  live  young  lobster,  and  what  is 
even  more  strange,  a  live  boiled  lobster  at  that ! 
No,  it  must  be  a  crab  lobster,  for  was  ever  the 
liveliest  lobster  in  its  greenest  stages  half  so  spry 
as  this  warlike  midge,  whose  free,  upraised,  open 
claws  threaten  to  nip  our  fingers  off  as  we  hold 
the  lens  above  him.  But  nag  and  prod  him  as 
we  will,  no  provocation  will  induce  him  to  loosen 
his  grip  on  his  means  of  transport. 

For  how  many  days,  I  wonder,  has  he  been  on 
this  particular  flying  trip }  How  many  miles  has 
he  travelled,  and  what  varied  experiences  has  he 
survived  !  How  many  are  the  lumps  of  sugar,  the 
drops  of  molasses,  the  slices  of  bread,  and  pats  of 
butter  over  which  he  has  been  trailed,  to  say 
nothing  of  puddles  of  fresh  ink  !  And  then 
think  of  the  many  hours  in  which,  from  his  pres- 
ent position,  he  must  have  conspicuously  figured 
at  that  toe  -  twisting  toilet  of  his  host !  Fancy 
brushing  your  coat  and  combing  your  hair  with  a 
live  boiled  lobster ! 

But  pollen  grains  are  not  pumpkins  and  foot- 
balls and  tea-boxes,  as  the  microscope  would  have 
us  believe ;  nor  does  the  drop  of  water  contain 
a  herd  of  strange  elephants.     Can  it  be  possible 


THE   TROUBLES   OF   THE   HOUSE-FLY  l8l 

that  this  lobster  is,  after  all,  only  about  an  eighth 
of  an  inch  long,  with  its  claws  spreading  barely 
three  -  sixteenths  of  an  inch  ?  Yes,  true ;  but  we 
must  remember  that  the  fly  is  only  about  one- 
third  of  an  inch  long,  and  we  can  imagine  how 
proportionately  formidable  the  little  beast  must 
appear  as  a  lurking  foe  and  a  handicap  to  the  fly 
fraternity.  I  have  therefore  pictured  this  little 
episode  of  fly-time  somewhat  from  the  aspect  of 
the  fly.  This  was  one  of  the  "  troubles  "  which  I 
had  in  mind  as  I  prepared  the  initial  design  with 
its  letter  O.  I  had  counted  on  using  an  old 
specimen  of  the  lobster  which  I  had  safely  stowed 
away  in  a  pill  -  box  somewhere,  until  my  hap- 
hazard fly  victim  supplied  me  with  a  fresh  speci- 
men, and  subsequently  helped  me  out  in  the  com- 
pletion and  modification  of  my  initial. 

A  correct  idea  of  the  anatomy  of  the  little  crab 
may  be  obtained  from  my  illustration.  But  what 
is  it  all  about,  this  funny  ride  on  a  fly's  hind-leg.? 
Excepting  as  an  inconvenience  and  encumbrance 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  fly  is  much  the  worse  for 
his  close  attachment,  and  while  this  mimic  crab  or 
lobster  cannot  be  called  a  frequent  passenger,  a 
careful  scrutiny  of  any  considerable  assemblage  of 
flies  on  white  paper  or  window-pane  will  occasion- 
ally show  us  the  animated  and  persistent  red  tag. 

But  let  us  call  him  a  lobster  no  more,  rather 
one  of  the  "  False  Scorpions,"  one  of  the  group 


known  as  Pcdipalpi,  in  the  books:  queer  little 
creatures  that  live  in  dusty  nooks,  among  old 
books  and  papers,  and  feed  on  tiny  mites  and 
other  minute  life  which  harbor  them,  but  born 
rovers  withal,  with  a  singular  fancy  for  fly  -  toes 
and  free  rides. 

But  the  false  scorpion  may  be  considered  rather 
as  a  bother  than  a  serious  trouble  to  the  fly.  His 
real  troubles  are  too  numerous  to  mention.  His 
life,  as  most  of  my  readers  will  be  glad  to  learn, 
is  not  a  bed  of  roses,  as  is  commonly  supposed. 
Just  think  for  a  moment  what  a  fly's  existence 
must  be.  With  the  deadly  fly-paper  on  the  one 
hand,  the  continual  danger  of  being  cemented 
into  a  pellet  of  pulp  in  the  maw  of  a  hornet,  or 
impaled  on  the  beak  of  his  murderous  relative 
the  "  Laphria-fly,"  or  snapped  up  by  birds,  toads, 
snakes,  he  certainly  has  abundant  use  for  that 
head  full   of   eyes   of  his.     All   summer  long   he 


THE   TROUBLES   OF   THE    IIOUSE-FLV  183 

runs  the  gantlet  of  risks  like  these,  but  in  Sep- 
tember and  October  a  new  and  terrible  danger 
awaits  him,  and  fortunate  is  he  if  he  escapes  in 
these  advanced  days  of  scientific  discovery,  when 
so  many  of  our  mortal  ills  are  shown  to  be  de- 
pendent upon  the  malignity  of  hovering  germs,  of 
microbes,  bacteria,  and  bacilli. 

Let  us  be  thankful  we  have  at  least  escaped  the 
notice  of  one  of  this  insidious  throng,  and  are 
spared  the  grotesque  horror  of  such  a  fate  as  the 
germ-scourge  of  flydom.  How  swift  and  terrible 
is  its  course!  To-day  a  pert  and  gladsome  inno- 
cent, sipping  on  the  rim  of  our  dinner-plate;  to- 
morrow a  pale,  dry  relic  of  his  former  self,  hanging 
from  the  window-pane  by  its  tongue,  and  enveloped 
in  a  white  shroud  of  mould,  the  victim  of  a  germ 
or  spore.  Look  where  we  will  upon  the  window 
on  those  September  and  October  days  and  we  see 
the  little  smoky  cloud  with  the  dangling  fly  in 
its  midst,  and  many  an  apparently  modest  and 
considerate  fly  upon  the  wall  will  be  found  simi- 
larly fixed  to  the  surface,  and  surrounded  with  the 
white  nimbus. 

But  the  real  mischief  was  done  perhaps  early  in 
the  evenmg,  after  our  fly  had  retired  for  the  night. 
He  presumably  experienced  the  first  attack  of 
acute  dyspepsia  he  had  ever  known.  In  his  pro- 
miscuous feedino;  he  had  chanced  to  imbibe  a 
spore,  which  once  within  his  vitals  began  its  mur- 


84 


EYE   SPY 


derous  work,  growing  so  fast  as  to  completely  fill 
his  swelling  body  by  morning,  when,  having  com- 
pleted its  growth  and  penetrated  through  the  in- 
sect's skin,  it  spread  its  own  spores,  to  be  wafted 
hither  and  yon  to  the  peril  of  next  year's  flies,  and 
the  consequent  delight  of  the  tidy  house-keeper. 

Such  is  the  work  of  the  world  -  renowned  fly- 
fungus,  of  which  a  writer  says :  "  It  silences  more 
house-flies  than  all  the  brushes,  traps,  poisons, 
whacks,  and  swearing  devoted  to  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  insect." 


.--A  ^fci'^i^-lSKJ'l^fe^^^^^^^^  observation  of 
\^^S^^W^r^  Nature  is  responsible  for 
some  curious  misrepresen- 
tations of  her  most  simple 
facts.  Even  those  of  us 
who  stand  somewhat  in  the 
relation  of  nature  teach- 
ers—  namely,  artists,  both 
draughtsmen  and  painters,  and  from  whom 
we  have  a  right  to  expect  absolute  fidelity — 
are  not  free  from  our  shortcomings  as  truth- 
ful chroniclers.  Thus  how  often  we  see  otherwise 
beautiful  landscapes  marred  by  features  which 
rebel  against  all  laws  of  natural  philosophy — of 
a  storm  sky  above  a  sunlit  scene,  for  instance, 
spanned  by  the  arc  of  the  rainbow,  and  with  all 
the  shadows  of  trees   and    other  objects  thrown 


1 86 


sidewise !  Then  there  is  that  inverted  or  very 
"dry"  crescent  moon  in  western  twiHght  skies; 
and  how  seldom  do  we  see  the  beautiful  law  of 
the  twining  tendril  appreciated  in  the  most  care- 
ful design  of  the  botanical  draughtsman ! 

For  years   the   tendril  was   to  me  the  conven- 
tional spiral,  twisting  like   a  continuous  curl   or 

spring    from     the 
V/  parent    branch    to 

^N^'-'.-i:^  ,  I  the   support 


a' 


th 


in     its 


clasp;   and  it  is  safe 
to     assert    that    not 
one  in — well,  a  good 
many  of-  us,  who  should  have 
gone  out  to  our  grape-vine 
or    passion -vine    or    melon- 
patch,  without  a  previous  forewarning,  would  have 
been  able  to  tell  correctly  the  pretty  little  story 
of  its   tendril    methods,  or  have   even    noted    the 
curious  little  kink  which  is  the  infallible  peculiar- 
ity of  the  climbing  tendril. 

What  is  a  tendril — botanically  speaking  ?    That 
depends.     It  is  one  thing  in  this  plant,  quite  an- 


TENDRILS  187 

other  in  that,  so  students  of  vegetable  anatomy 
or  morphology  soon  discover. 

It  is  soon  perfectly  plain  that  the  stem  is  a 
modified  root.  For  instance,  plants  have  been 
taken  up  from  the  sod  and  replaced  in  the  ground 
upsidedown,  the  roots  subsequently  becoming 
stems,  and  bearing  leaves,  and  the  buried  leafy 
stems  assuming  the  functions  of  roots.  Leaves 
are  mere  modified  branches,  and  the  flowers  modi- 
fied leaves.  Pistils  and  stamens  in  flowers  are 
modified  petals,  or  rather  petals  are  modified  sta- 
mens, the  "  doubling  "  of  flowers  representing  the 
being  thus  accomplished,  while  the  petals  again 
are  mere  changed  leaves.  A  neighbor  of  mine 
ha?  a  bush  bearing  green  roses — all  leaves.  In 
the  water-lily  you  will  find  it  difficult  to  determine 
just  where  the  stamen  ends  and  the  petals  begin, 
so  gradual  is  the  blending.  In  the  peony  the 
same  is  true,  and  carried  still  further  in  the  merg- 
ing of  petals  and  calyx  into  the  approximate 
leaves. 

And  so  it  is  with  tendrils.  In  certain  plants 
the  point  of  the  leaf,  through  ages  of  "  natural 
selection,"  has  gradually  been  prolonged  into  a 
slender  arm,  which  clasps  the  branches  of  trees, 
and  enables  the  plant  thus  endowed  to  climb 
higher  to  sun  and  sky,  and  thus  to  thrive  more 
vigorously  than  its  less  fortunate  brothers.  The 
plant  so    advantageously   equipped   transmits    its 


EVE    SPY 


tendency  to  its  offspring,  and  has  therefore  sur- 
vived in  place  of  its  ancient  fellows,  and  is  the 
type  perpetuated  or  "  selected  "  by  nature.  Such 
a  tendril,  then,  is  a  modified  leaf.  How  is  it  in 
the  pea. J*  Here  we  find  four  leaflets  in  two  oppo- 
site pairs,  but  no  odd  leaflet  at  the  end  of  the  main 
stalk,  such  as  we  see  in  almost  all  other  plants  of 
its  family.  But  in  place  of 
this  leaflet  we  find  a  branch- 


ing tendril  reach 

ing  out  on  all  sides  foi 

conquest.     How  quietly 

by  the  aid  of  these  eager 

arms  the  sweet-pea  climbs  to  the  top  of  its  brush  ! 

In    the   common    catbrier  or  smilax   we  see   two 

slender  thread-like  tendrils  growing  from  the  base 

of  each  leaf.     Here  we  have  another  modification, 

a  development  of  the  "stipule,"  that  tiny  pointed 

growth  common  to  many  leaves,  and  particularly 

notable  at  the  base  of  a  rose  leaf.     Still  another 

plan  has  been  evolved  in  the  grape-vine.     If  we 


TENDRILS  189 

examine  our  grape  arbor  in  June  we  find  a  num- 
ber of  drooping,  swaying  branches.  The  leaves 
are  scattered  singly  at  intervals  of  a  few  inches 
along  the  branch,  each  of  the  upper  ones  being 
attended  on  its  opposite  side  by  a  drooping  clus- 
ter of  mignonette -scented  blossoms.  Thus  they 
follow  down  towards  the  tip  of  the  branch,  where 
the  clusters  suddenly  cease,  and  are  replaced  by 
long,  slender,  curving  and  branched  tendrils,  some- 
times ten  inches  long.  We  might  thus  reasona- 
bly assume  the  tendril  in  this  case  to  be  a  modi- 
fied blossom  cluster,  but  there  is  no  need  for  us 
ever  to  assume  such  a  thing.  If  we  will  only 
search  with  sufficient  care  we  shall  at  last  dis- 
cover the  absolute  proof  of  the  fact  in  a  tendril 
which  is  partly  in  blossom,  the  nearest  leaf-joint 
above  it  having  a  full  cluster  of  blossoms,  and  the 
tendril  below  it,  nearer  the  tip,  not  a  few  scattered 
flower-buds  at  its  tips.  This  grape-vine  instance 
may  be  taken  as  a  demonstration  that  in  no  case 
is  the  tendril  a  special  or  primal  organ,  but  mere- 
ly an  old  one  adapted  to  a  new  purpose.  In  one 
instance  from  a  leaf,  in  another  from  a  flower- 
stalk,  just  which  can  generally  be  determined  by  a 
sufflcient  search  for  the  telltale  intermediate  form 
somewhere  to  be  found  on  the  plant. 

Among  the  most  beautiful  of  all  tendrils  are 
those  of  the  passion-flower  and  plants  of  the 
melon    family,   notably   the    wild    star -cucumber, 


-x  ^ 


whose  portrait  is 
here  presented.  It 
is  a  more  or  less 
common  weed,  to  be 
found  about  gar- 
dens and  barn-yards, 
where  it  covers  the 
fences  with  its  pro- 
fuse, clamberinor 
growth,  its  stallcs 
everywhere  entan- 
gled or  drawn  close 
to  support  by  their 


TENDRILS  191 

long,  green,  spiral  springs,  and  its  free,  branching, 
young  tendril  tips  reaching  out  in  all  directions 
for  fresh  foothold,  and  in  its  absence  content  at 
length  with  a  friendly  intertwining  among  them- 
selves, and  a  consequent  tangle  of  green  convolu- 
tions. It  is  hard  to  believe  that  these  long,  out- 
reaching  arms  at  the  summit  of  this  vine  are 
identical  with  the  closely  twisted  spirals  below, 
but  such  is  the  case;  let  any  one  of  them  once 
feel  the  contact  of  even  the  frailest  support  of 
twig  or  stalk,  and  it  is  soon  close  in  the  embrace 
of  its  eager  tip,  and  the  contraction  of  the  spring 
commences,  but  the  method  of  this  contraction  is 
worth  our  study. 

In  order  for  this  tendril  to  coil  it  must  twist, 
and  it  is  perfectly  plain  on  general  principles  that 
with  both  ends  held  fast  twisting  is  impossible. 
But  this  little  paradox  is  evidently  dismissed  by 
the  tendril.  If  we  tie  a  short  string  between  two 
given  points,  and  attempt  to  twist  it  with  our  fin- 
ger and  thumb,  we  succeed  in  turning  the  string, 
'tis  true,  but  the  twist  on  the  right  side  neutral- 
izes that  on  the  left,  being  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. In  this  way  only  can  the  cord  be  twisted. 
If  we  twist  with  sufficient  patience  we  may  imi- 
tate the  coil  of  the  tendril,  which  is  performed  pre- 
cisely in  this  way.  Herein  lies  the  secret  of  that 
little  loop  or  kink  in  the  centre  of  all  tendrils — 
a  given  point,  which  cannot  be  determined  on  the 


192  EYE   SPY 

extended  tendril,  but  whose  mission  is  to  reverse 
the  twist  in  opposite  directions  as  soon  as  the  tip 
has  secured  its  contact,  and  thus  permit  the  coil- 
ing process  to  proceed.  In  tendrils  of  exceeding 
length  several  of  these  reverse  loops  may  be 
found  at  regular  intervals,  sometimes  as  many  as 
six  in  a  single  tendril,  but  the  coiling  process  usu- 
ally awaits  this  contact.  Unsatisfied  tendrils  of 
the  grape,  for  instance,  will  remain  unchanged 
through  the  entire  season,  or  until  their  sensitive 
touch  has  been  lost.  Others,  like  those  of  the 
passion-flower,  will  occasionally  become  discour- 
aged and  curl  up  all  by  themselves,  in  which  case, 
the  other  tip  being  free,  the  curl  is  perfect  and 
continuous  and  without  the  reverse  loop,  which  is 
now  unnecessary.  But  the  function  of  the  tendril 
is  to  clasp  and  hold.  Its  growth  is  not  complete 
until  thus  quickened  by  the  new  responsibility. 
Tendrils  on  duty  become  tough  and  sinewy  in 
comparison  to  their  idling  neighbors.  How  firm 
and  rigid  are  these  swollen  coils  upon  the  grape- 
vine ! 

We  do  not  gather  "figs  from  thistles,"  but  some 
equally  incongruous  botanical  associates  are  some- 
times brought  about  through  the  insinuating  and 
clambering  methods  of  the  tendril.  Have  we  not 
all  seen  apple-trees  bearing  pumpkins  or  squashes 
or  gourds,  all  originally  carried  thither  in  the  form 
of  great  yellow  blossoms  or  tender  shoots !     The 


grape  -  vine    occasion- 
ally plays   a  singular 
botanical  prank  in  the 
orchard.      Here    is    a 
drooping  tendril  which 
has   been   swinging 
about- for  weeks  from 
its  vine  canopy  on  the 
old  apple-tree.     It  had 
become    almost    dis- 
couras^ed,    when     a 
chance-favoringbreeze 
wafted  its  tip  in  con- 
tact   with    an     apple 
close   by.     It  was   its 
last  chance ;   with   its 
hooked    extremity    it    clasped 
the  stem  of  the  fruit,  and  soon 
made  itself  fast  with  three  or 
four  firm  coils.    Doubtless  the 
little    reversing    loop    some- 
where  along   the   tendril   was 
also  awakened  from  its  chronic 
lethargy,  and   did   its  best  to 
13 


194  EVE   SPY 

start  the  coil.  Presiimal)ly  it  succeeded,  for  the 
pull  was  sufificient  to  dislodge  the  apple,  which, 
falling  to  the  entire  length  of  the  tendril,  was  still 
held  fast  in  the  grip,  whose  new  responsibility  had 
ofiven  it  new  strcnirth. 

And  there  our  apple  hung  for  weeks,  swinging 
like  a  pendulum  from  the  slender  grape-vine,  the 
coils  on  duty  still  keeping  their  firm  grip  on  the 
stem,  even  though  all  above  were  straightened  by 
the  weight  of  the  burden. 


^^OiirtSt  ron^e  Story  ^^a  Grajshi 

FEW  days  ago,  while  return- 
ing from  a  walk,  I  chanced 
to  observe  a  dead  grass- 
hopper upon  the  dirt  at 
the  side  of  the  road.  Now 
this  incident  would  not  have 
been  of  special  importance 
had  I  not  discovered,  upon 
careful  post-mortem  exami- 
nation, the  very  remarkable 
manner  of  the  insect's  death, 
which  recalled  a  similar  surprising  episode  of 
several  years  ago  which  I  had  almost  forgotten. 
Upon  referring  to  my  note -book  of  that  period, 
however,  I  found  considerable  space  devoted  to 
the  incident,  which  greatly  astonished  me  at  the 
time.  Inasmuch  as  it  presents  in  a  startling 
light  the  wonderful  and  strange  resources  by 
which  nature  holds  in  check  the  too  rapid  in- 
crease of  species  and  maintains  the  great  law 
of  equilibrium  among  the  insect  forces,  it  is  well 


^%^^ 


196  EYE   SPY 

worth  recalling  in  these  pages,  in  the  firm  belief 
that  my  young  entomological  readers  will  hence- 
forth look  more  compassionately  and  tenderly 
upon  the  poor  "high-elbowed  grig"  who  is  the 
unfortunate  hero  of  my  story.  He  is  familiar  to 
us  all,  that  hovering  "  rattler  "  above  the  hot,  dusty 
road  of  August,  flying  up  from  nowhere  beneath 
our  feet  in  the  path,  fluttering  like  a  yellow  moth, 
and  always  disappearing  before  our  eyes  when  he 
alights.  He  is  also  known  as  the  "  Quaker,"  from 
his  drab  suit  and  bonnet,  and  his  generosity  with 
his  "molasses"  is  proverbial  from  the  days  of 
the  Pilgrim  settlers.  Who  would  have  believed 
that  such  a  fate  as  the  following  lay  in  store  for 
him. 

In  previous  papers  I  have  indicated  some  of 
the  remarkable  pranks  which  the  various  ich- 
neumon-flies play  with  unsuspecting  caterpillars. 
The  polyphemus,  for  instance,  whose  cocoon,  filled 
with  hopes  of  a  beautiful  butterfly  existence,  yields 
only  a  swarm  of  wasps.  The  caterpillars  are  help- 
less, and  would  seem  an  easy  prey  to  the  wily 
fly  who  lays  her  eggs  upon  them ;  but  even  the 
agile -winged  "Quaker,"  and  doubtless  many  of 
his  kind — yes,  and  still  more  agile  insects  —  are 
not  quick  enough  to  escape  a  like  fate. 

At  the  time  of  my  discovery  I  had  in  prepara- 
tion an  article  for  "  Harper's  Magazine  "  entitled 
"Among  Our  Footprints."     I  wished  to  describe 


A   STRANGE   STORY    OF  A   GRASSHOPPER  I97 

and  illustrate  a  singular  battle  which  I  had  short- 
ly before  observed  between  a  large  red  mutilla 
ant  and  a  "Quaker."  The  mutilla  I  had  captured 
at  the  time,  and  had  preserved  as  a  specimen.  I 
needed  only  the  grasshopper  to  complete  my 
drawing.     Directly  in   front   of  my  city  house   a 


number  of  vacant  grassy  lots  offered  a  favorite 
haunt  for  the  insects  —  I  used  to  call  it  the 
Quaker  camp-meeting  ground — and  I  started  out 
to  procure  one.  Having  no  net,  I  was  soon  con- 
vinced that  I  was  greatly  at  a  disadvantage.  The 
thermometer  was  about  90°,  and,  of  course,  the 
"  Quakers,"  being  in  their  element,  had  much  the 
best,  not  to  say  the  easiest,  time  of  it.  I  at  length 
gave  up  the  chase,  and  was  about  leaving  the 
field,  when  fortune  favored  me  by  the  discovery  of 
a  clumsy  specimen,  which  seemed   unable  to  fly 


198  EVE    SPY 

for  any  great  length,  and  he  was  soon  captured. 
Upon  examination  his  wings  seemed  partially 
paralyzed,  but  otherwise  he  appeared  to  be  in 
good  health  and  spirits,  his  hind  legs  being  espe- 
cially lively  and  snappy.  I  immediately  took  the 
insect  to  my  studio,  and  pinned  him  through  the 
thorax.  He  was  strong  enough  to  pull  out  the 
pin  from  the  board  and  jump  around  the  room 
with  it  in  my  temporary  absence. 

I  lost  no  time  in  taking  his  portrait,  which 
figured  in  the  illustration  to  the  article  on  "  Foot- 
prints "  as  "  the  ungainly  victim,"  I  little  dream- 
ing when  I  gave  him  such  a  title  what  a  re- 
markable sort  of  victim  he  even  then  was.  The 
drawing  took  me  about  ten  minutes.  I  then 
left  the  studio,  and  was  absent  precisely  fifteen 
minutes.  Upon  returning  I  found  the  grass- 
hopper dead. 

My  curiosity  was  aroused,  not  only  by  such  a 
rapid  demise  (for  the  impaling  through  the  thorax 
is  not  usually  an  immediately  fatal  injury  to  an 
insect),  but  especially  by  some  very  strange  and 
unnatural  automatic  movements  of  the  victim — 
head  protruding  and  turning  from  side  to  side; 
queer  expansion  of  body,  as  though  breathing; 
unusual  lifting  and  other  motions  of  legs,  particu- 
larly of  hind  legs ;  the  whole  demonstration  a 
mockery  on  life.  The  grasshopper  was  pinned  to 
my  drawing-board,  and  against  a  piece  of  news- 


A   STRANGE   STORY   OF   A   GRASSHOPPER  199 

paper.  As  I  watched  his  strange  antics,  I  sud- 
denly discovered  that  he  had  become  a  veritable 
phantom  of  his  former  self;  that  I  could  actually 
read  the  newspaper  text  through  his  body.  Exam- 
ination now  revealed  the  mystery.  I  could  easily 
see  every  nook  and  cranny  of  the  grasshopper's 
interior,  so  glassy  were  the  walls  of  the  body,  and 
I  could  now  count  about  a  dozen  small,  white 
larvae,  which  were  now  full  grown,  and  were  crawl- 
ing about  within  through  head,  thorax,  body,  and 
hind  legs,  cleaning  its  walls  of  every  particle  of 
remaining  tissue,  and  causing  the  singular  mo- 
tions described.  Such  a  strange  house -cleaning 
I  never  saw  before. 

When  the  "Quaker"  locust  was  captured  it 
showed  not  the  slightest  sign  of  any  such  goings- 
on  within  its  being.  The  final  voracity  of  the 
larvae  was  swift  and  terrible.  And  what  an  as- 
tonishina^  instinct  is  that  which  should  teach 
these  parasites  to  avoid  the  vitals  of  their  insect 
host  until  the  last  moments  of  their  own  final, 
complete  growth  !  The  entire  space  of  time  from 
the  activity  of  the  grasshopper  to  the  empty, 
transparent  phantom  was  less  than  thirty  minutes. 
I  placed  the  unfortunate  victim  in  a  small,  close 
box.  Next  morning  he  presented  nothing  but  a 
clean,  glassy  shell,  now  more  glassy  than  before, 
empty  of  every  vestige  of  organic  matter,  while 
scattered  about  on  the  bottom  of  the  box  lay  fif- 


200  EYE   SPY 

teen  dark  red,  egg -shaped  chrysalides  of  the  es- 
caped larvDe.  Two  weeks  later,  upon  opening  the 
box,  a  swarm  of  flies  flew  out.  I  was  enabled  to 
keep  two  of  them.  They  were  almost  exactly 
Hke  the  common   house-fly  to   the   ordinary  ob- 


server, but  belonged  to  a  distinct  genus.  At  this 
writing,  in  the  absence  of  my  specimen,  I  cannot 
give  the  name  by  which  they  are  known  in  learned 
circles,  but  I  think  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  they 
probably  belong  to  the  group  called  Tachina,  a 
family  of  parasitic  flies  which  spend  their  early 
lives  in  a  similar  questionable  manner,  to  the 
probable  discomfort  of  potato  -  bugs,  caterpillars, 
and  other  accommodating  insect  hosts. 


A   STRANGE   STORY   OF  A    GRASSHOPPER  20I 

I  had  seen  similar  flies  emerging  from  my 
caterpillar  boxes  in  my  early  entomological  days 
without  suspecting  their  significance,  and  any 
large  collection  of  caterpillars  in  confinement  is 
likely  to  include  a  victim. 


Riddles    in   Flowers 


NDEED,  are  they  not  all  rid- 
dles? Where  is  the  flower  which 
even  to  the  most  devoted  of  us  has 
yet  confided  all  its  mysteries  ? 
In  comparison  with  the  insight 
of  the  earlier  botanists,  we  have 
surely  come  much  closer  to  the 
flowers,  and  they  have  im- 
parted many  of  their  se- 
crets to  us.  Through  the  inspired 
vision  of  Sprengel,  Darwin,  and 
their  followers  we  have  learned 
something  of  their  meaning,  in 
addition  to  the  knowledge  of  their 
structure,  which  comprised  the  end 
and  aim  of  the  study  of  those  early 
scholars,  Linnaeus,  Lindle3^  J  ussieu,  and  De  Can- 
dolle.  To  these  and  other  eminent  worthies 
in  botany  we  owe  much  of  our  knowledge  of 
how  the  flowers  are  made,  and  of  the  classifi- 
cation   based   upon    this   structure,   but   if   these 


RIDDLES   IN    FLOWERS 


203 


great  savants  had  been  asked,  "  You  have  shown 
us  that  it  is  so,  but  7v/iy  is  it  thus  ?"  they  could 
only  have  replied,  "We  know  not;  we  only  know 
that  an  all-wise  Providence  has  so  ordained  and 
created  it." 

Take  this  little  collection,  which  I  have  here 
presented,  of  stamens  and  petals  selected  at  ran- 
dom from  common  blossoms.  What  inexplicable 
riddles  to  the  botanist  of  a  hundred  years  ago, 
even  of  sixty  years  ago  !     For  not  until  that  time 


:^^  'f^  (i\i)i 


204  EYE   SPY 

was  their  significance  fully  understood ;  and  yet 
each  of  these  presents  but  one  of  several  equally 
puzzling  features  in  the  same  flowers  from  which 
they  were  taken. 

In  that  first  anther,  for  example,  why  those 
pores  at  the  tip  of  the  cells,  instead  of  the  usual 
slits  at  the  sides,  and  why  that  pair  of  horns  at 
the  back  ?  And  the  next  one,  with  longer  tubes, 
and  the  same  two  horns  besides !  Then  there  is 
that  queer  specimen  with  flapping  ears  —  one  of 
six  from  the  barberry  blossom ;  and  the  pointed, 
arrow-headed  individual  with  a  long  plume  from 
its  apex;  and  the  curved  C- shaped  specimen — 
one  of  a  pair  of  twins  which  hide  beneath  the 
hood  of  the  sage  blossom.  The  lily  anther,  which 
comes  last,  is  poised  in  the  centre.  Why.^^  What 
puzzles  to  the  mere  botanist!  for  it  is  because 
these  eminent  scholars  were  mere  botanists — stu- 
dents and  chroniclers  of  the  structural  facts  of 
flowers  —  that  this  revelation  of  the  truth  about 
these  blossom  features  was  withheld  from  them. 
It  was  not  until  they  had  become  philosophers 
and  true  seers,  not  until  they  sought  the  divine 
significance,  the  reason,  which  lay  behind  or  be- 
neath these  facts,  that  the  flowers  disclosed  their 
mysteries  to  them. 

Look  at  that  random  row  of  petals,  too  ! — one 
with  a  peacock's  eye,  two  others  with  dark  spots, 
and  next  the  queer-fingered  petal  of  the  migno- 


RIDDLES    IN    FLOWERS  20$ 

nette,  followed  by  one  of  that  queer  couple  of  the 
monk's -hood  blossom  which  no  one  ever  sees 
unless  he  tears  the  flower  hood  to  pieces.  We  all 
know  the  nasturtium,  but  have  we  thought  to  ask 
it  why  these  petals  have  such  a  deep  crimson  or 
orange  colored  spot,  and  why  each  one  is  so  beau- 
tifully fringed  at  the  edge  of  its  stalk  ? 

These  are  but  a  dozen  of  the  millions  of  sim- 
ilar challenges,  riddles,  puzzles,  which  the  com- 
monest flowers  of  field  and  garden  present  to 
us;  and  yet  we  claim  to  "know"  our  nasturtium, 
our  pink,  our  monk's -hood  larkspur,  our  daisy, 
and  violet ! 

No ;  we  must  be  more  than  "  botanists  "  before 
we  can  hope  to  understand  the  flowers,  with  their 
endless,  infinite  variety  of  form,  color,  and  fra- 
grance. 

It  was  not  until  the  flowers  were  studied  in 
connection  with  the  insects  which  visit  them  that 
the  true  secret  of  these  puzzling  features  became 
suspected. 

We  all  know,  or  should  know,  that  the  anther 
in  flowers  secretes  and  releases  the  pollen.  For 
years  even  the  utility  of  this  pollen  was  a  mystery. 
Not  until  the  year  1682  was  its  purpose  guessed, 
when  Nehemias  Grew,  an  English  botanist,  dis- 
covered that  unless  its  grains  reached  the  stigma 
in  the  flower  no  seed  would  be  produced  (Dia- 
gram   A).      But    the    people    refused    to    believe 


2o6 


EYE   SPY 


this,  and  it  was  not  until  fifty  years  later  that 
Grew's  statement  was  fully  accepted,  and  then 
only  because  the  great  Linnaeus  assured  the 
world  that  it  zvas  true.  But  about  fifty  years 
later  another  botanist  in  Germany,  Sprengel, 
made  the  discovery  that  the  flower  could  not 
be  fertilized  as  these  botanists  had  claimed,  that 


in  many  blossoms   the   pollen   could   not  fall   on 
the  stigma. 

Sprengel  knew  that  this  pollen  must  reach  the 
stigma,  but  showed  that  in  most  flowers  it  could 
not  do  so  by  itself.  He  saw  that  insects  were 
always  working  in  the  flowers,  and  that  their 
hairy  bodies  were  generally  covered  with  pol- 
len, and  in  this  way  pollen  grains  were  contin- 
ually carried  to  the  stigma,  as  they  could  easily 
be  in  these  two  blossoms  shown  at  Diagram  B. 
Sprengel  then  announced  to  the  world  his  the- 
ory —  the   dawn   of   discovery,  the   beginning  of 


RIDDLES   IN   FLOWERS 


207 


the  solution  of  all  these  floral  riddles.  The  insect 
explained  it  all.  The  bright  colors  and  fra- 
grance were  intended  to  attract  him,  and  the 
nectar  to  reward  him,  and  while  thus  sipping  he 
conveyed  the  pollen  to  the  stigma  and  fertilized 
the  flower. 

But  now  Sprengel  himself  was  met  with  most 
discouraging  opposition  to  his  theory,  showing 
that  he  had  guessed  but  half  the  secret  after  all. 
Flowers  by  the  hundreds  were  brought  to  his 
notice,  like  that  shown   in  Diagram  C,  in  which 


the  insect  could  not  transfer  the  pollen  from 
anther  to  stigma,  as  the  stigma  is  closed  when 
the  pollen  is  ripe,  and  like  that  in  Diagram  D, 
which  does  not  open  until  the  pollen  is  shed. 
For  seventy  years  this  astonishing  fact  puzzled 
the  world,  and  was  at  last  solved  by  the  great 
Darwin,  who  showed  that  nearly  all  flowers  shun 
their  own  pollen,  and  are  so  constructed,  by  thou- 


2o8  EYE   SPY 

sands  of  singular  devices,  that  the  uisect  shall 
bring  to  each  the  pollen  of  another  flower  of  the 
same  species,  and  thus  effect  what  is  known  as 
cross-fertilization. 

We  must  then  look  at  all  flowers  as  expres- 
sions of  welcome  to  some  insect — day-flowering 
blossoms  mostly  to  bees  and  butterflies,  and  night- 
bloomers  to  moths.  And  not  only  expressions  of 
welcome,  but  each  with  some  perfect  little  plan  of 
its  own  to  make  this  insect  guest  the  bearer  of  its 
pollen  to  the  stigma  of  another  flower  of  the 
same  species.  And  how  endless  are  the  plans 
and  devices  to  insure  this  beautiful  scheme! 
Some  flowers  make  it  certain  by  keeping  the  stig- 
ma closed  tight  until  all  its  pollen  is  shed ;  others 
place  the  anther  so  far  away  from  the  stigma  as 
to  make  pollen  contact  impossible;  others  actu- 
ally imprison  these  pollen -bringing  insects  until 
they  can  send  them  away  with  fresh  pollen  all 
over  their  bodies. 

Take  almost  any  flower  we  chance  to  meet,  and 
it  will  show  us  a  mystery  of  form  which  the  insect 
alone  can  explain. 

Here  is  one,  growing  just  outside  my  door — a 
blossom  "  known  "  even  to  every  child,  and  cer- 
tainly to  every  reader  of  the  "  Round  Table  " — 
the  pretty  bluets,  or  Houstonia,  whose  galaxy  of 
white  or  blue  stars  tints  whole  spring  meadows 
like  a  light  snowfall.     We  have  "  known  "  it  all 


RIDDLES    IN    FLOWERS  209 

our  lives.  Perhaps  we  may  have  chanced  to  ob- 
serve that  the  flowers  are  not  all  constructed 
alike,  but  the  chances  are  that  we  have  seen  them 
all  our  lives  without  discovering  this  fact.  If  we 
pluck  a  few  from  this  dense  cluster  beside  the 
path,  we  observe  that  the  throat  of  each  is  swollen 
larger  than  the  tube  beneath,  and  is  almost  closed 
by  four  tiny  yellow  anthers  (Fig.  i).  The  next 
and  the  next  clump  may  show  us  similar  flow- 
ers ;  but  after  a  little  search  we  are  sure  of  find- 
ing a  cluster  in  which  a  new  form  appears,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  2,  in  which  the  anthers  at  the  open- 
ing are  missing,  and  their  place  supplied  with  a 
little  forked  stigma!  The  tube  below  is  larger 
than  the  first  flower  for  about  two -thirds  its 
length,  when  it  suddenly  contracts,  and  if  we  cut 
it  open  we  find  the  four  anthers  secreted  near  the 
wide  base  of  the  tube.  What  does  it  mean,  this 
riddle  of  the  bluets.'^  For  hundreds  of  years  it 
puzzled  the  early  botanists,  only  finally  to  be 
solved  by  Darwin.  This  is  simply  the  little  plan 
which  the  Houstonia  has  perfected  to  insure  its 
cross -fertilization  by  an  insect,  to  compel  an  in- 
sect to  carry  its  pollen  from  one  flower  and  de- 
posit it  upon  the  stigma  of  another.  Once  realiz- 
ing this  as  the  secret,  we  can  readily  see  how  per- 
fectly the  intention  is  fulfilled. 

In  order  to  make  it  clear  I  have  drawn  a  pro- 
gressive series   of  pictures  which   hardly  require 


RIDDLES   IN    FLOWERS  211 

description.  The  flowers  are  visited  by  small 
bees,  butterflies,  and  other  insects.  At  the  left  is 
an  insect  just  alighting  on  a  clump  of  the  blos- 
soms of  the  high-anther  form  indicated  below  it. 
The  black  probe  represents  the  insect's  tongue, 
which,  as  it  seeks  the  nectar  at  the  bottom  of  the 
tube,  gets  dusted  at  its  thickened  top  with  the 
pollen  from  the  anthers.  We  next  see  the  insect 
flying  away,  the  probe  beneath  indicating  the  con- 
dition of  its  tongue.  It  next  alights  on  clump 
No.  2,  in  which  the  flowers  happen  to  be  of  the 
high-stigma  form,  as  shown  below.  The  tongue 
now  being  inserted,  brings  the  pollen  against  the 
high  stigma,  and  fertilizes  the  flower,  while  at  the 
same  time  its  tip  comes  in  contact  with  the  low 
anthers,  and  gets  pollen  from  them.  We  next  see 
the  insect  flying  to  clump  No.  3,  the  condition  of 
its  tongue  being  shown  below.  Clump  No.  3  hap- 
pens to  be  of  the  first  low-stigma  form  of  flowers, 
and  as  the  tongue  is  inserted  the  pollen  at  its  tip 
is  carried  directly  to  the  low  stigma,  and  this  flow- 
er is  fertilized  from  the  pollen  from  the  anthers 
on  the  same  level  in  the  previous  flower.  And 
thus  the  riddle  is  solved  by  the  insect.  From 
clump  to  clump  he  flies,  and  through  his  help 
each  one  of  the  pale  blue  blooms  is  sure  to  get  its 
food,  each  flower  fertilized  by  the  pollen  of  an- 
other. 

Another  beautiful  provision  is  seen  in  the  dif- 


212  EYE   SPY 

ference  in  size  of  the  pollen-grain  of  the  two  flow- 
ers, those  of  the  high  anthers  being  much  larger 
than  those  from  the  lower  anthers.  These  larger 
grains  are  intended  for  the  high  stigma,  which 
they  are  sure  of  reaching,  while  those  of  smaller 
size,  on  the  top  of  the  tongue,  which  should  hap- 
pen to  be  wiped  off  on  the  high  stigma,  are  too 
small  to  be  effective  for  fertilization. 


ijUCK  "  Cl^O^B^' 


NDER  one  guise  or  another 
the  fickle  goddess  Fortuna  would 
seem  to  have  established  her  in- 
fallible interpreters  or  mediators. 
The  lovelorn  maiden  with  the 
daisy,  its  petals  falling  beneath 
her  questioning  finger-tips  to 
the  alternate  refrain,  "  He  loves 
me.  He  loves  me  not,"  is  a  sac- 
rificial episode  in  the  life  of  the 
daisy  wherever  it  grows. 

The  still  younger  maiden  with 
her  dandelion  ball,  whose  feath- 
ered parachutes  must  be  dislodged  upon  the  breeze 
with  three  puffs  from  her  little  puckered  mouth, 
with  all  sorts  of  fate  depending  upon  the  odd 
or  even  number  of  the  remnant  seeds,  is  as  uni- 
versal as  the  dandelion  itself,  while  the  more 
homely  symbols  of  wish-bone,  horseshoe,  or  horse- 


214  EYE   SPY 

chestnut,  as  we  all  know,  are  proverbially  potent 
as  personal  or  household  charms  against  ill  luck. 
I  once  knew  a  shrewd  countryman  who  gave  all 
the  credit  of  his  success  in  "  tradin' "  to  the 
"  hoss-chestnut "  which  he  carried  in  his  pocket, 
and  would  as  soon  think  of  throwing  his  money 
away  as  to  "  drive  a  trade  "  without  it.  More 
than  one  old  "  down  -  East  "  dame  "  sets  gre't 
store "  by  the  horseshoe  hung  above  her  door- 
way, always  secured  ends  up,  "  so's  the  luck  can't 
run  out."  Then  there  was  old  Aunt  Huldy,  who, 
while  she  claimed  to  locate  springs  and  wells 
the  country  round  by  her  witch-hazel  divining- 
rod,  never  ventured  upon  these  expeditions  with- 
out the  concealed  necklace  of  dried  star  puff-balls 
hung  about  her  neck. 

But  perhaps  the  most  universal  of  all  these  nat- 
ural symbols  of  good-fortune  is  to  be  found  in  the 
four-leaved  clover,  almost  a  world-wide  supersti- 
tion, and  traced  back  to  the  ancient  astrologers. 
"  If  a  man,  walking  the  fields,"  writes  one  of  them, 
"  finds  any  four-leaved  grasse,  he  shall  in  a  short 
while  after  finde  some  good  thing." 

The  clover  was  considered  as  being  especially 
"noisome  to  witches,"  and  the  "holy  trefoil  charm" 
was  a  powerful  spell  against  their  harm  ;  the  "  tre- 
foil" being  the  most  widely  used  title  of  the  clover 
—  Trifolium,  as  it  is  in  the  botany — three  leaved. 
And  such  it  should  be,  to  be  true  to  its  christen- 


LUCK   IN   CLOVERS  21$ 

ing.  But  it  frequently  takes  exception  to  the 
botany  and  gives  us  an  extra  leaf,  and  thus  we 
have  our  "four -leaved  clover,"  a  rarity  which 
many  of  us,  seek  as  we  will,  have  never  yet  been 
able  to  discover  in  its  native  haunt,  even  though  a 
whole  handful  of  them  are  plucked  here  and  there 
before  our  eyes  by  our  more  favored  companions. 
Indeed,  there  are  some  lucky  folk  who  seem  liter- 
ally to  stumble  upon  "four-leaved  grasse  "  wher- 
ever they  go — who,  having  found  one  leaf,  will  sit 
down  quietly  in  the  grass  and  ere  long  accumu- 
late a  bouquet. 

Yes,  here's  the  secret:  It  is  not  your  eager 
gadding  quest  that  gets  your  four-leaved  clover. 
Nor  is  it  all  a  matter  of  "  sharp  eyes."  There  is 
a  "knack"  about  finding  four- leaved  clover,  and 
this  very  knack  of  the  so-called  "  lucky  ones,"  im- 
plying as  it  does  the  operation  of  quest,  observa- 
tion, and  common -sense,  would  logically  argue  a 
corresponding  fulfilment  of  success  in  the  affairs 
of  daily  life.  For  the  observant  clover-hunter,  if 
his  mind  and  eye  work  together,  soon  learns  that 
the  "four-leaved  "  variety  is  fond  of  company,  and 
that  the  whim  of  the  plant  which  thus  produces 
one  such  leaf  is  very  apt  to  be  humored  in  several 
others.  Thus,  having  discerned  one  four- leaved 
clover,  we  assume  a  tendency  in  the  parent  plant, 
which  further  search  often  discloses,  sometimes  to 
our  great  surprise,  and,  if  we  are  as  superstitious 


2l6  EYE   SPY 

as  our  antique  philosopher  above  quoted,  to  our 
unbounded  satisfaction.  If,  for  instance,  this  one 
extra  leaflet  brings  such  assurance  of  "good 
things  "  to  come,  what  shall  be  said  of  a  leaf  with 
five  or  six  leaflets — yes,  seven,  or  perhaps  eight — 
I  might  even  add  nine  —  a  veritable  little  green 
rose  of  clover  leaves,  all  on  one  stem,  a  stem 
which  is  sometimes  plainly  composite,  of  two  or 
three  adherent  stems?  All  of  these  exuberant 
forms  are  to  be  found  with  diligent  search,  and 
often  in  the  same  close  vicinity.  Nor  are  these 
all  the  varied  freaks  which  the  plant  will  disclose 
for  the  seeking.  Perhaps  you  may  chance  upon 
that  four-leaved  variety  in  which  the  extra  leaflet 
stands  upright  in  the  midst  of  the  three,  and  is 
transformed  into  a  tapering  cup.  These  elfin 
goblets  are  not  exceedingly  rare.  Occasionally 
we  may  chance  to  find  two  of  these  supported  by 
one  or  two  perfect  leaflets  at  the  base.  Or,  if  we' 
are  especially  fortunate,  our  "good  health"  may 
be  offered  in  three  of  the  tiny  beakers,  not  mere 
apparent  cups,  but  with  the  edges  of  the  goblets 
completely  united,  and  which  might  be  filled  to 
the  brim  with  dew. 

A  collection  of  the  natural  whims  of  the  clover, 
both  red  and  white,  would  make  an  interesting 
leaflet  in  our  herbarium.  In  the  hands  of  the 
floriculturist  who  should  cultivate  these  eccen- 
tricities most  remarkable'  varieties  of  clover  might . 


ensue.  Fancy  a  clover  plant 
with  every  leaf  a  cluster  of  tiny 
cups,  or  of  leaves  so  doubled 
as  to  appear  like  green  roses ! 
Here  is  a  chance  for  our  boys 
and   girls    to    experiment,  and 


*"'^  yf^^' 


without  much  real  la- 
bor, too.  Both  the  red 
and  white  clovers  are  perennial 
— that  is,  they  come  up  year 
after  year  from  the  same  root. 
A  plant  which  this  year  favors 
the  "four-leaf"  will  doubtless 
follow  the  same  example  next 
year,  and  the  seed  from  its 
flowers  might  also  inherit  and 
transmit  the    same    peculiarity, 


>     > 


21 8  EVE   SPY 

possibly  in  an  exaggerated  degree ;  and  care- 
ful selection  from  year  to  year,  keeping  the 
plants  in  a  corner  by  themselves,  might  lead 
to  some  interesting  results,  especially  if  the 
tendency  were  further  stimulated  by  enrichment 
of  soil  to  which  the  clover  responds  vigor- 
ously. 

My  experience  with  "clover  luck"  has  been 
considerable.  I  believe  I  have  found  almost 
every  possible  eccentric  combination  of  which  the 
plant  is  naturally  capable,  a  few  of  which  I  have 
here  pictured. 

My  best  success  has  been  met  in  the  "  rowen  " 
fields,  or  the  growth  after  mowing,  the  energy  of 
the  plant,  thus  pruned  as  it  were  in  its  prime, 
finding  immediate  expression  in  an  exuberance 
of  luxuriant  foliage,  which,  I  think,  inclines  to 
a  multiplication  of  leaves.  I  once  sat  down 
beside  such  a  clump  upon  which  I  had  discov- 
ered a  single  "four-leaf,"  and  by  dint  of  pluck- 
ing and  examining  every  leaf  in  the  cluster, 
succeeded  in  obtaining  thirty -nine  specimens. 
"  Why  not  make  it  forty  while  you  are  about 
it?"  a  friend  of  mine  recently  remarked,  with 
evident  incredulity.  Well,  I  tried  to,  but  after 
grubbing  up  the  last  embryo  leaf  at  the  ground, 
thirty -nine  was  my  limit  —  all  from  one  plant. 
The  collection  might  be  subdivided  as  follows : 
Four   leaves,   22;    five    leaves,   7;    six   leaves,  3; 


LUCK    IN   CLOVERS 


219 


seven  leaves,  i  ;    nine  leaves,  i  ;   cups  and  leaves, 
various,  5. 

At  another  time  I  spied  a  single  five-leaved  in 
a  dense  bed  of  rowen  clover  at  the  road-side,  and 
seating  myself  close  beside  it,  calculating  on  this 
habit     of     the     plant,     I 
vowed    I    would    not   get 
up  until  I  had   collected 
forty  multiple   leaves.     I 
soon  obtained  more  than 
this  number. 

The  clover -leaf  quest 
is  a  good  eye  -  sharpen- 
er. Which  of  our  boys 
can  show  us  the  best 
record .? 

I     wonder    if    any    of 
my   young   readers    have 
ever  seen  how  the  clover  says  its 
prayers  and  goes  to  sleep,  with  its 
two    side    leaflets    folded    together 
like    reverent   palms,  and    the    ter- 
minal   leaflet   bowed   above   them  ? 
So  the  normal  leaf  spends  the  night  in  the  dews. 
I  often  wonder  what  arrangement  of  adjustment 
is   arrived   at  when  so  many  leaflets  conspire  to 
confuse. 

My  clover-hunting  has  been  confined  to  the  red 
and  white  clovers,  both  species   having  common 


220  I'^'^'E    SI'Y 

tendencies.  In  the  red,  the  leaves  being  larger, 
the  freaks  are  more  conspicuous,  but  the  cup 
forms  seem  more  commonly  identified  with  the 
white  clover. 


N  E    wlio    is 
remarkable 
in    association 
honey -sippers 


doings 


unfamiliar  with  the 
of  blossoms 
with  their  insect 
might  consider  it 
somewhat  surprising  to  attribute 
manners  "  to  a  flower.  But  who 
that  has  seen  the  sage-blossom  clap  its  bee  vis- 
itor on  the  back  as  she  ushers  him  in  at  the 
threshold  of  her  purple  door,  marking  him  for 
her  own  with  her  dab  of  yellow  pollen  as  she  al- 
most pushes  him  into  the  nectar  feast  within; 
who  that  has  witnessed  the  almost  roguish  dem- 
onstration which  the  tiny  andromeda-bell  extends 
to  the  sipping  bee  at  its  doorway — who  that  has 
seen  these  can  any  longer  doubt  that  blossoms 
have  "manners"  as  well  as  we  bigger,  more  con- 


222  EVE   SPY 

scious  beings  ?  Yes,  manners,  unquestionably — 
"bad  manners,"  it  would  almost  seem,  in  some  in- 
stances, as,  for  example,  in  this  andromeda  blos- 
som-bell, which,  in  its  perfume  and  its  nectar,  de- 
liberately invites  the  tiny  Andrena  bee,  only  to 
deluge  its  little,  black,  hairy  face  with  a  smother- 
ing shower  of  dusty  pollen.  A  remarkable  style 
of  etiquette,  surely,  that  is,  from  our  human  stand- 
point. But  in  the  realm  of  Flora  the  standards 
of  decorum,  so  far  as  greeting  is  concerned,  are 
not  governed  by  artificial  whim.  There  is  no 
"smart  set"  to  dictate  and  set  the  fashion  for  oth- 
ers less  smart  to  follow.  Each  individual  flower 
is  a  law  unto  itself  as  to  the  method  of  its  greet- 
ing to  its  especial  insect  friend.  The  blossom  eti- 
quette of  welcome  is  literally  as  "old  as  the  hills," 
and  has  come  down  with  little  change  from  an 
ancestry  which  dates  back  perhaps  to  a  period 
when  there  were  no  human  "  ancestors "  on  the 
globe.  So  these  "  manners  "  are  natural  and  orig- 
inal, to  say  the  least,  even  if  they  are  so  queer 
sometimes.  What  would  you  think  of  a  friend 
whose  hospitable  smile  and  welcome  at  his  door- 
way should  invite  you  thither  only  that  your  foot 
might  touch  a  trigger  and  let  fall  the  floor  be- 
neath you,  while  at  the  same  time  you  are  half 
suffocated  with  an  explosion  of  a  bushel  of  yellow 
corn  meal }  Yet  such  is  something  like  the  spec- 
tacular reception  which  the  lotus  clover,  the  des- 


BARBERRY    MANNERS  223 

modium,  and  the  genista  flowers  consider  the 
most  expressive  form  of  welcome.  But  the  h'ttle 
bees  seem  to  enjoy  it,  and  go  again  and  again  to 
each  successive  flower,  well  knowing  what  the  re- 
sult will  be,  and  apparently  "  touching  off  the 
trigger  "  without  a  tremor,  or  even  holding  their 
breath.  But  they  and  their  foreparents  for  thou- 
sands of  years  have  got  accustomed  to  it,  and  I 
half  imagine  that  the  baby  bee,  even  in  his  first 
visit  to  one  of  these  blossoms,  knows  precisely 
what  will  happen.  Pop !  pop !  go  the  explod- 
ing flowers,  one  after  the  other,  at  each  touch  of 
the  bee,  throwing  up  a  cloud  of  yellow  pollen 
which  covers  the  bodies  of  the  insects  until  they 
are  as  dusty  as  little  millers. 

There  is  an  endless  variety  in  these  various 
welcomes  among  the  flowers,  and  our  barberry 
has  one  of  the  queerest  of  them  all.  Poets  of  all 
ages  have  loved  to  dwell  upon  the  flowers — their 
"swete  smels,"  exquisite  forms,  fragrance,  and 
colors.  The  droning  bees  in  an  environment  of 
fragrant  bloom  have  moved  many  a  poetic  pen  to 
inspiration.  But  it  is  not  often  that  the  bards 
have  seen  deep  enough  into  the  floral  mysteries 
to  immortalize  the  doings  of  the  blossoms. 

I  recall  one  such  allusion,  however,  with  ref- 
erence to  this  mischievous  blossom  of  the  bar- 
berry. How  well  old  Hosea  Biglow  knew  its 
pranks ! 


224  EYE   SPY 

"  All  down  the  loose- walled  lanes  in  archin'  bowers 
The  barb'ry  droops  its  strings  o'  golden  flowers, 
Whose  shrinkin'  hearts  the  school-gals  love  to  try 
With  pins.     They'll  worry  yourn  so,  boys,  bime-by." 

Those  "  shrinkin'  hearts  "  of  the  barberry  blos- 
som, so  long  the  wonder  and  amusement  of  chil- 
dren, including  many  children  of  adult  growth, 
have,  so  far  as  I  know,  herein  found  their  first  and 
only  historian — historian,  but  not  interpreter.  For 
Hosea  Biglow,  nor  his  literary  parent,  James  Rus- 
sell Lowell,  never  dreamed  of  the  significance  of 
this  strange  spectacle  in  the  shrinkin'  hearts  of 
the  barberry  bloom  when  surprised  with  the  point 
of  a  pin. 

But  the  bee  can  tell  us  all  about  it.  He  has 
known  this  singular  trick  in  the  barberry  for 
ages,  and  kept  the  secret  all  to  himself.  Only 
comparatively  recently  (1859  or  thereabouts)  did 
the  secret  leak  out,  when  Darwin,  by  the  previous 
hints  of  several  other  philosophers,  discovered  the 
key  which  unlocked  the  mystery  of  this  as  well 
as  thousands  of  other  similar  riddles  amonor  the 

o 

flowers. 

These  strange  "  manners  "  of  the  blossoms  had 
then  a  deep  vital  principle  at  their  base.  They 
had  not  always  been  thus,  but  had  gradually, 
through  long  ages  of  time,  changed  and  modi- 
fied their  shapes,  colors,  odors,  nectar,  and  their 
manners  for  one  purpose — to  insure  their  pollen 


^^^: 

g'4^^^-'- 


% 


In  arclim'  bowers 


226 


EYE   SPY 


being  conveyed  away  upon  the  bodies  of  insects 
and  carried  to  a  secojid  flower,  and  there  placed 
upon  the  stigma  to  insure  fertiHzation  and  devel- 
opment of  the  seed. 

The  plans,  devices,  tricks,  and  pranks  by  which 
flowers  accomplish  this  result  are  past  belief.  I 
have  indicated  only  a  few  by  way  of  a  hint,  and  in 
previous  papers  on  the  bluebottle  and  figwort 
have  described  others,  but  none  quite  similar  to 
the  barberry. 

We  all  know  the  barberry,  the  prickly,  thorny 


op«ii.i-''j  "{  aii(Kt)-  kir 


BARBERRY    MANNERS  22/ 

barberry,  whether  with  its  "strings  o'  golden  flow- 
ers "  or  its  drooping  clusters  of  brilliant  scarlet 
acid  berries.  But  each  one  of  those  berries  is  but 
a  token  of  a  bee's  visit,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 
At  Fig.  I  I  have  shown  a  plan  of  the  barberry 
blossom  seen  from  below,  its  yellow  sepals  and 
petals  open,  and  opposite  each  of  the  inner  set, 
and  pressed  against  it,  a  stamen.  This  stamen 
is  shown  below  in  three  stages  —  closed,  part- 
ly open,  and  fully  open  —  the  queer  little  ear- 
shaped  lids  finally  drawn  up,  showing  the  pollen- 
pockets,  and  also  withdrawing  a  portion  of  the 
pollen  from  the  cavity.  At  the  centre  is  seen 
the  circular  tip  of  the  ovary  which  finally  becomes 
the  berry  —  that  is,  when  the  little  scheme  here 
planned  has  been  fulfilled.  This  circular  form 
represents  the  tip  of  the  ovary,  and  the  little 
toothed  rim  the  stigma.  Now  what  is  the  inten- 
tion here  expressed.?  This  construction  repre- 
sents a  plan,  first,  to  invite  a  bee — this  is  done  by 
its  color,  its  fras^rance,  and  its  nectar,  which  is  se- 
creted  in  a  gland  at  the  base  of  each  petal,  near 
the  centre  of  the  flower;  secondly,  to  make  that 
bee  bear  away  the  pollen ;  thirdly,  to  cause  that 
same  bee  to  place  this  pollen  on  the  stigma  rim  of 
the  next  flower  he  visits.  In  Fig.  2  we  see  how 
beautifully  this  plan  is  carried  out  by  the  insect, 
without  his  suspecting  how  perfectly  he  has  been 
utilized.     At  A  we  see  the  same  flower  cut  open 


EVE    SPY 


sideways,  the  waiting,  expectant  stamens  tucked 
away  at  the  sides,  leaving  a  free  opening  to  the 
base  of  the  flower.  Now  comes  our  bee.  He 
must   needs  hang   back   downward  to  sip  at  the 


drooping  flower.  As  his  tongue  enters,  and  final- 
ly touches  the  base  of  these  stamens,  clap  !  they 
come  one  after  another  against  his  tongue  and 
face,  and  there  deposit  their  load  of  pollen  (B). 
The  bee,  who  has  doubtless  got  over  his  surprise 
at  this  demonstration  —  if,  indeed,  he  ever  had 
any  —  now  flies  to   another   blossom,  perhaps  on 


BARBERRY    MANNERS  220 

the  same  cluster  (C).  Entering  it  as  before,  the 
notched  edge  of  the  stigmatic  rim  comes  in  con- 
tact with  the  pollen  on  his  tongue  and  face,  and 
the  flower  is  thus  fertilized  by  pollen  from  an- 
other barberry  blossom,  the  intention  of  the  flow- 
er now  perfectly  realized  in  ^r^^i--fertilization. 

The  seeds  from  (fr^j-^-. fertilized  flowers  are  al- 
most invariably  more  vigorous,  and  thus  yield 
more  vigorous  plants,  than  those  of  flowers  fertil- 
ized  with  their  own  pollen,  and  this  is  why  most 
flowers  have  necessarily  developed  some  means 
by  which  cross-fertilization  can  be  secured.  And 
this  has  been  done  throuo^h  evolution  workine  on 
the  lines  of  natural  selection,  those  seedlings 
which  had  originally  happened,  by  a  variation  in 
the  flower,  to  be  thus  favored  by  some  chance 
peculiarity  which  insured  cross -fertilization,  win- 
ning in  the  struggle  with  the  previous  weaker  in- 
dividuals, and  finally  supplanting  them  altogether. 


/ 


■y 


)C 


ARDLY  a  season  passes  with- 
out my  being  in  receipt  of  one 
^^  '  ^   *i>         Qj.  more  inquiries,  personal  or 

^//  '  by  letter,  concerning  this  snowy  brood  which 
haunts  the  alders  in  the  swamp  or  along  the 
road-side,  and  which  envelops  the  smaller  branches 
in  its  dense,  feathery  fringe.  It  is  often  one  of 
the  most  frequent  and  conspicuous  incidents  in 
a  country  walk  during  its  season,  and  its  season 
ranges  from  its  height  in  early  summer  until  the 
frost.  And  yet  how  few  there  are,  even  of  those, 
perhaps,  who  pass  it  every  day,  who  have  any  defi- 
nite idea  of  its  character  ! 

I  know  one  rustic  who  claimed  that  it  was 
"dry-rot,"  or  a  "  speeshy  of  mould  ";  but  the  wool- 
ly phenomenon  is  commonly  dismissed  by  the 
rural  mind  with  the  observation  that  it  is  "  bugs 


A  WOOLLY    FLOCK  23 1 

of  some  sort."  In  this  case  the  haphazard  ver- 
dict happens  to  be  the  literal  truth,  though  the 
speaker  little  suspects  how  closely  he  has  discrim- 
inated. But  his  present  skill  is  easily  accounted 
for  when  we  remember  that  only  yesterday  he 
had  a  great  deal  to  say  about  "June -bugs"  and 
"lightning-bugs."  He  will  tell  you  all  about 
"  lady  -  bugs,"  too,  and  "rose -bugs,"  and  "horn- 
bugs,"  and  "pinch-bugs"  —  and  has  he  not  often 
given  his  strong  opinion  on  "potato-bugs"? — not 
one  of  which  insects  is  in  the  least  entitled  to 
the  name  of  "  bug."  Only  this  very  morning  he 
asked  me  if  I  was  "as  fond  of  goin'  buggin'  as  I 
used  to  be."  But  to  the  granger  laity  the  ento- 
mologist is  always  a  "  bug-hunter,"  even  though 
no  single  species  of  a  bug  is  to  be  found  in  his 
entire  insect  cabinet. 

What,  then,  is  a  bug,  and  why  is  the  discrimina- 
tion of  "  bugs  of  some  sort "  so  truly  applicable  to 
this  brood  with  the  snowy  wool  which  grows 
upon  the  alder  twigs  ? 

The  term  "bug"  has  almost  become  a  popular 
synonym  for  "  insect."  All  bugs  are  insects,  'tis 
true,  but  it  by  no  means  follows  that  all  insects 
are  bugs.  The  "  squash-bug  "  is  almost  the  only 
insect  that  is  known  by  its  true  title  in  the  popu- 
lar vocabulary,  for  this  disgusting  insect  is  in 
truth  a  typical  bug. 

But  who  would  ever  think  of  calling  the  whiz- 


232  EYE   SPY 

zing  harvest-fly  a  "bug?"  Rather  will  they  per- 
sist that  he  is  a  "  locust,"  which  he  is  not.  He 
should  be  called  the  cicada.  The  "  grasshopper  " 
of  the  fields  is  the  true  locust,  whose  swarms  of 
certain  species  in  the  Orient  have  so  often  shut 
out  the  sun,  and  whose  voracious  feeding  has  laid 
waste  whole  square  miles  of  vegetation  in  a  single 
night. 

But  such  a  swarm  of  locusts  as  we  read  of  in 
Scripture,  and  frequently  in  the  history  of  mod- 
ern times  and  in  our  own  country,  would  be  com- 
paratively tame  and  merely  amusing  affairs  were 
they  composed  of  our  so-called  "locust" — he  of 
the  whizzing  timbrel  in  the  sultry  August  noon. 
For  this  insect  has  no  teeth,  and  could  not  bite  a 
blade  of  grass  if  it  wanted  to.  And  herein  we 
see  one  of  the  peculiarities  which  constitute  him 
a  "  bug,"  and  which  also  includes  in  the  same 
company  our  woolly  swarm  upon  the  alder  twigs. 
In  place  of  teeth  these  insects  are  supplied  with 
a  beak  for  sucking  the  juices  of  plants.  If  we 
carefully  examine  the  dense  snowy  mass  we  find 
it  composed  of  small  tufts  closely  crowded  to- 
gether, each  tuft  being  borne  upon  the  plump 
body  of  a  small  insect  whose  beak  is  deeply  sunk 
into  the  tender  bark. 

I  have  separated  one  of  the  little  creatures,  and 
furnished  his  portrait  as  he  appears  when  viewed 
through  a  magnifying-glass,  only  the  lower  por- 


A   WOOLLY   FLOCK 


233 


tion  of  his  body  being  covered  with  the  wool,  iiis 
bead  and   legs   being   usually  concealed   beneath 
the  pluming  growth  of  his  neighbors.     This  feath- 
ery growth  seems  of  the  most  del- 
icate consistency — in  truth,  more  / 
suo^oestive    of    white    "  mould  " 
than    any    other    natural 
substance,  and  seems   to 
proceed  from  pores              ^„ 
in  the  plump  body 
beneath     it.       The 
sHo^htest  breath 
wafts    the    cob- 
webby   tips    of 
the    fringe,  and 
the  least  rude 
touch     easily 
dislodo^es     it, 
exposmg  the 
round,     naked 
body  of  what  is 
now  clearly  seen  to  be 
an  aphis,  or  plant-louse, 
which  nature,  for  some 
reason,  has  seen   fit  to 
clothe  with  swan's-down. 

In  early  June  the  white  down  first  appears  on 
the  alders  in  tiny  patches  here  and  there.  This 
gradually  extends  down   the  stem,  at  length,  per- 


234  EYE   SPY 

haps,  completely  encircling  it,  and  thus  remaining 
for  weeks,  the  full-grown  aphis  at  last  attaining  a 
length  of  about  three-sixteenths  of  an  inch. 

A  similar  brood  is  sometimes  seen  in  profusion 
on  beech-trees  and  also  on  the  apple-tree.  But  if 
we  imagine  that  because  these  insects  are  with- 
out teeth  they  are  therefore  harmless,  w^e  are 
greatly  mistaken.  What  they  lack  in  individual 
effect  they  fully  compensate  for  in  numbers,  and 
the  combined  attack  of  a  girdle  of  thousands  of 
these  sucking  beaks,  for  weeks  absorbing  the  sap, 
may  often  result  in  the  death  of  the  branch  be- 
yond them. 

Dr.  Harris,  in  his  admirable  work  on  "  Insects 
Injurious  to  Vegetation,"  tells  us  that  "  in  Glou- 
cestershire, England,  so  many  apple-trees  were  de- 
stroyed by  these  lice  in  the  year  1810  that  the 
making  of  cider  had  to  be  abandoned.  So  in- 
fested were  many  of  the  trees  that  they  seemed, 
at  a  short  distance,  as  if  they  had  been  white- 
washed." 

Other  insects,  such  as  the  flea  and  the  mos- 
quito, are  also  possessed  of  similar  "  beaks  for 
sucking,"  but  neither  of  these  examples  is  a  bug, 
both  being  flics  —  the  flea  merely  a  wingless  fly 
wath  wonderfully  developed  legs.  Our  entomolo- 
gy tells  us  that  a  bug  is  a  member  of  the  Hcmip- 
tera,  meaning  "half-winged;"  the  wings  of  the 
typical  bug,  like  the  squash-bug,  being  transparent 


for  only    about  half  their  length. 

But   as    in    the    flea    among  flies, 

here  we  find  myriads  of  true  bugs 

without    a    vestige    of  wings,  and 

others,  like  the  cicada,  with  ample 

wings  as  clear  and 

free  from  opacity  as 

those   of  a  fly.     It 

would  take  more 

space  than   I    have 

at   disposal   to    tell 

precisely  what 

a    bug    really 

is  entomologi- 

cally,  such    a 

diversity  of 


forms     is 
presented 
in  the  fam- 
ily.   But  the  suck- 
ing beak,  and  the 
fact  that  the  average  bug 
is  born  a  bug  from  the 
&^%.  instead  of  going  through  the 
usual    transformation    of  larva,  chry- 
salis, and  imago,  will  have  to  suffice  us 


236  EYE   SPY 

for  the  present.  Here,  for  instance,  is  the  great 
sub-tribe  of  the  aphis,  to  which  our  woolly  spec- 
imen belongs.  What  is  their  life  history?  The 
eggs  of  the  mother  aphis  are  laid  in  the  autumn, 
giving  birth  to  the  baby  swarm  in  the  following 
spring.  In  an  almost  incredible  time  they  have 
multiplied  to  such  an  extent  that  the  twigs  of  our 
roses  and  many  other  plants  are  lost  to  view  in 
the  encircling  swarm.  The  secret  of  this  won- 
derful arithmetical  progression  may  be  seen  in 
the  following  quotation,  which  applies  to  aphides 


in  oreneral : 


The  plant-louse  of  the  apple-tree  produces 
one  hundred  young  ones  in  a  single  generation, 
these  being  born  alive,  and  each  of  these  brings 
forth  others  in  equal  number,  until,  at  the  end  of 
the  tenth  generation,  which  is  reached  before  the 
coming  of  frost,  the  original  aphis  has  become  the 
mother  of  one  quintillion  of  her  species." 

But  up  to  this  time  nearly  all  the  aphides  have 
been  females;  in  the  last  generation  the  winged 
males  appear,  and  are  seen  assembled  among  the 
swarm  —  the  last  mother  brood  laying  the  eggs 
which  are  to  start  anew  the  cycle  of  life  the  fol- 
lowing season. 

So  far  as  I  have  observed,  however,  the  woolly 
species  of  aphis  never  acquires  wings,  nature  hav- 
ing in  a  measure  compensated  for  their  absence 
in  the  growth  of  plumy  down,  which,  according  to 


A   WOOLLY   FLOCK  237 

Harris,  is  so  buoyant  as  to  enable  the  insect  to  be 
borne  upon  the  breeze  from  tree  to  tree.  To 
this  resource  he  attributes  the  spread  of  the  wing- 
less apple-lice  species.  But  it  would  take  a  stiff 
breeze  thus  to  waft  the  body  of  our  plump  dweller 
on  the  alder,  unless,  indeed,  in  his  younger  days. 


Wb2it  Qils  m^ 


N  a  certain  afternoon 
last  August,  having  just 
completed  a  particu- 
larly laborious  work 
upon  which  I  had 
long  been  engaged, 
and  with  my  mind 
natu  rally  inclined 
towards  relaxation 
i  in  my  plans  for  the 

morrow's  labors,  my 
eye    instinctively 
sought  a  certain    note-book 
""  upon    my    table.     It   was   a 

note-book  containing  memoranda  on  a  wide  va- 
riety of  Nature  topics,  but  presented  in  a  partic- 
ular place  a  choice,  selected  list  of  topics  under 
the  title  of  "  Young  People."  A  large  number 
of  these  memoranda  were  crossed  off  with  a 
pencil  line,  which  told  me  that  these  particular 
topics    had    already    served    their    purpose,   were 


"WHAT    AILS    IIIM  ?"  239 

sufificiently  elaborated  in  the  columns  of  the 
"  Young  People,"  and  were  now  safely  preserved 
between  the  covers  of  my  book  "  Sharp  Eyes.'^ 

But  what  an  array  of  items  were  still  left  from 
the  winnowing,  which  had  after  all  culled  only  a 
few  of  the  best!  Indeed,  it  was  hard  to  decide 
which  should  be  selected  as  the  subject  for  the 
morrow.  Let's  see;  shall  it  be  those  travelling 
underground  buds  of  the  Clintonia,  with  all  their 
leaves  and  fiowers  ready  for  next  spring  ?  No,  I 
must  wait  a  little  for  these  a  month  later  and 
they  will  be  more  mature,  and  I  must  make  my 
drawing  from  nature.  Then  there  is  that  queer 
blue  oil  beetle,  with  his  queerer  history;  that 
slender- waisted  wasp  that  digs  its  deep  hole  in 
the  dirt,  and  those  round  holes  in  the  path,  with 
their  mysterious  hocus-pocus. 

Yes,  it  shall  be  these,  the  magic  holes  that  dis- 
appear as  you  cautiously  look  at  them,  or  sudden- 
ly start  into  view  as  you  approach  —  deep  holes, 
the  diameter  of  a  slate -pencil,  with  apparently 
nothing  in  them,  but  which  in  reality  have  a  good 
deal  of  mischief  at  the  bottom  of  them  or  at  the 
top  of  them,  as  it  happens.  "  Ant  holes,"  most 
people  call  them.  Many  an  ant,  doubtless,  goes 
into  them,  but  not  because  he  wants  to.  "Yes," 
I  thought,  "  my  next  chapter  shall  be  devoted  to 
these  queer  holes  and  their  shy  tenants,  which  so 
few  people  ever  see  or  even  dream  of." 


240  EYE   SPY 

Having  thus  decided,  I  closed  my  note -book, 
but  the  experience  of  the  next  few  minutes  quite 
reversed  my  plans,  and  led  to  the  completion  of 
an  entirely  different  article,  or  the  pictures  for  it 
at  least,  on  the  same  afternoon,  without  awaiting 
the  morrow. 

I  had  barely  closed  the  note-book  when,  chanc- 
ing to  glance  out  of  my  studio  window,  I  observed 
a  well-known  neighbor,  a  thrifty,  retired  granger 
and  carpenter,  approaching  across  lots.  His 
house  stood  out  against  the  sky  at  the  crest  of 
the  slope,  about  a  furlong  distant,  above  my 
studio,  and  he  had  perhaps  reached  half-way  to 
my  window  before  I  had  observed  him.  Some- 
thing in  his  walk,  his  somewhat  accelerated  pace 
and  evident  preoccupied  mood,  as  well  as  a  pecul- 
iar position  of  his  extended  right  hand,  foretold 
that  some  unusual  errand  had  turned  his  steps 
hitherward.  With  considerable  curiosity  I  en- 
deavored to  detect  at  a  distance  the  specimen 
which  he  was  bringing,  well  knowing  from  expe- 
rience that  I  should  soon  recognize  an  old  friend, 
which  for  sixty  years  had  somehow  managed  to 
escape  the  notice  of  its  new  discoverer. 

Half  across  the  meadow  I  now  observed  that  he 
held  a  leaf  in  his  outstretched  hand,  and  now  I 
clearly  noted  that  it  was  a  compound  leaf,  and  in 
another  second  I  knew  it  all.  For  was  it  not  a 
leaf   of   the   Virginia-creeper   or  woodbine?   and 


'WHAT   AILS   HIM?' 


241 


how  many  before  him  have  marvelled  at  that 
strange  exhibition  among  the  woodbine  leaves 
which  had  now  probably  met  his  eyes  for  the  first 
time  ?  In  another  moment  he  was  at  the  piazza 
stoop,  and  now  he  appears  at  the  studio  door. 
Eager  anticipation  and  shortness  of  breath  were 
eqiTally  manifest  as  he  approached  my  easel  and, 
with  his  right  hand  still  out- 
stretched towards  me,  .^^ 


exclaimed,  "  Well, 
what  ails  him  /" 


^= 


s/^V 


>^ 


at  the  same 
time  laying  down 
before  me  the  mys- 
terious specimen.  It 
was  a  leaf  of  the  woodbine, 
bearing  along  its  stem  a  cylindrical  mass  of  what 
appeared  to  be  tiny,  oblong,  white  eggs,  all  set  on 
end,  and  so  densely  packed  that  but  for  the  head 
and  tail  of  the  shrunken,  green  caterpillar  which 
appeared  at  the  two  extremities  of  the  mass  no 
one  would  have  guessed  their  origin.  "What 
ails  him .?" 

"  I  was  sitting  on  my  porch,"  continued  my  puz- 


242  EYE   SPY 

zled  visitor,  "and  sa^v  the  white  thing  among  the 
.  leaves,  and  took  a  closer  look  at  it,  and  found  it 
was  this.  I  never  saw  anything  like  it  before,  and 
I  thought  perhaps  you  hadn't  either,  or,  at  least, 
that  if  you  had  you  could  tell  me  something 
about  it.     What  ails  him,  anyhow.-^" 

The  story  was  simply  told,  and  my  readers 
who  have  followed  my  articles  already  know 
what  the  story  is.  We  remember  the  strange 
history  of  those  little,  puzzling  cocoon  clusters 
on  a  grass  stem,  those  "  bewitched  cocoons  "  which 
gave  birth  to  swarms  of  tiny  wasps  instead  of 
moths,  and  we  realize  that  here  is  more  of  the 
same  sort  of  mischief,  all  of  which  I  explained 
to  my  good  neighbor,  to  his  astonishment.  How 
a  few  weeks  since,  when  our  caterpillar  was  much 
smaller  than  now,  a  tiny,  black  midget  hovered 
about  him,  and,  in  spite  of  all  his  wriggling  and 
squirming,  stung  him  again  and  again,  each  time 
inserting  within  his  body  its  tiny  eggs.  Perhaps, 
and  probably  in  this  case,  from  the  number  of  the 
white  tokens,  more  than  one  of  the  flies  took  a 
turn  at  the  unlucky  victim,  for  he  certainly  seems 
to  have  got  more  than  his  share. 

"  These  eggs  thus  inserted  beneath  the  skin  of 
the  caterpillar,"  I  explained,  "  soon  hatched  into 
minute  white  grubs,  which  immediately  fastened 
themselves  upon  the  tissues  within  the  caterpil- 
lar's body,  and  he  is  now  obliged  to  eat  for  the 


"WHAT    AILS    HIM?"  243 

whole  family,  which  he  continues  to  do  without 
any  outward  signs  of  inconvenience  or  protest, 
which,  of  course,  would  be  useless.  I  fancy  he 
must  have  frequent  attacks  of  that  '  all  -  gone ' 
feeling  that  we  hear  so  much  about  in  dyspeptic 
people,  but  if  he  does  he  gives  no  hint  of  it  by 
his  looks,  as  he  devours  one  leaf  after  another 
along  the  stem,  and  displays  his  plump  propor- 
tions with  evident  pride — like  the  whole  tribe  of 
horny-tailed  '  sphinx '  caterpillars  to  which  he  be- 
longs. 

"  But  a  few  days  ago  he  had  a  sudden  and  ter- 
rible experience.  He  had  begun  to  think  of  re- 
tiring down  among  the  dried  leaves  on  the  ground 
and  spinning  a  cocoon,  and  there  were  bright  vis- 
ions of  a  future  life  filling  his  little  green  head- 
visions  of  a  life  on  wings,  as  quick  as  thought,  in 
an  atmosphere  of  twilight  and  fragrance,  and  all 
manner  of  sweet  indulgences.  But  his  beautiful 
dream  was  interrupted,  and  probably  will  remain 
only  as  a  dream.  At  one  moment  we  see  him  in 
his  prime,  a  perfect  specimen  for  the  '  bug-hunter' 
who  is  after  the  larva  of  Choerocampa  pampina- 
trix.  In  ten  minutes  we  look  at  him  again:  we 
find  his  body  shrunken  and  covered  with  minute 
white  grubs,  all  standing  on  their  tails,  which 
are  still  imbedded  in  his  body;  here  one  bare- 
ly emerged;  here  another  half  enshrouded  in 
a  gauzy   cocoon;    others  with   their  bodies   bent 


244 


EVE   SPY 


into  loops  weaving  the  webby  gauze  about  them, 
while   a  few   hours   hence    all    are    concealed,   as 
we   see   them    now,  in   the   completed   long,  oval, 
white  cocoons 
which  still  re- 
main attached 
to  his  body." 
"  Well,"   re- 


|l\^ 


■t^^ 


marked  my  listener, 

"  I    guess    he    feels 

pretty  sick ;    if  he  don't, 

I    vow    I    feel    sick    for 

him.     I  knew  something 

awful   ailed  him,  but  didn't  know 

what.     I  thought  the  things  were 

eggs.     What's  the  good  of  it  all, 


anyhow.'*      What  do  the  cocoons  turn  into.''" 

I  have  wished  more  than  once  that  my  friend 
could  have  been  in  my  studio  the  day  following 
his  visit,  in  order  to  have  witnessed  the  ocular 
answer  to  his  last  question.  It  was  evident  that 
his  caterpillar  specimen  might  have  been  discov- 


"WHAT   AILS    IIIM?" 


'AS 


ered  with  its  load  of  cocoons  a  fortnight  asfo,  for 
in  the  morning,  upon  opening  the  box  in  which  I 
had  placed  him,  a  number  of  tiny  black  flies  flew 
out,  and  several  of  the  white  cocoons  were  open 
at  the  end,  their  dainty  hinged  lids  thrown  back. 
Here  is  one  with  its  black  midge  just  creeping 
out ;  others  with  the  tiny  imp 
peeping  through  the  fine  crev- 
ice ;  others  with  the  lid  still 
tightly  closed,  but  with  its  junc- 
ture disclosing  more  distinctly 
every  moment  the  knavery  of 
the  busy  teeth  within.  One  by  one 
the  silken  lids  popped  up,  and  out 
flew  the  mischievous  jack-in-the-box  until 
within  the  space  of  a  few  hours  every 
cocoon  was  empty.  So  this  is  "  what 
ailed  him."  He  has  been  the  victim 
of  the  parasitic  fly  known  as  mici'Ogastcr. 

But  even  now  that  his  mortal  enemies  have 
left  him,  I  fancy  he  is  past  encouragement  or 
salvation.  What  will  become  of  him  ?  In  his 
particular  case  he  continued  to  dwindle  and  soon 
died,  though  in  other  instances  I  have  known  him 
to  recover  and  reach  the  chrysalis  stage,  to  com- 
plete his  transformation  into  a  beautiful  olive  and 
red  sphinx-moth. 


NDER  the  popular  name  of  "locust,"  our 
cicada,  or  harvest-fl)^  has  long  enjoyed  the 
reputation  as  our  chief  insect  musician, 
vying  with  the  katydid  in  the  volume  of  its 
song.  We  all  know  its  long,  whizzing  crescendo 
in  the  sultry  summer  days.  But  let  us  call  things 
by  their  right  names.  This  buzzing  musician  is 
not  a  locust;  it  is  a  cicada.  The  true  locust  is 
what  we  ordinarily  call  a  grasshopper,  that  "  high- 
elbowed  grig"  of  the  meadows,  so  generous  with 
his  "  molasses,"  and  with  such  a  vigorous  kick. 
He,  too,  is  a  musician  in  a  modest  way — a  fiddler, 


THE    cicada's    last   SONG  247 

carrying  his  "  fiddle  "  on  the  edge  of  his  folded 
wing  covers,  against  which  he  gently  grinds  out 
faint,  squeaky  music,  using  his  thigh -joint  as  a 
fiddle-bow.  His  single  efforts  are  barely  audible, 
but  multiplied  ten-thousandfold  in  his  great  field 
orchestra,  becomes  a  murmur  which  may  be  dis- 
tinctly heard,  and  which  no  doubt  all  of  us  have 
heard  without  a  suspicion  as  to  its  source.  It 
is  a  part  of  the  great  musical  symphony  of  the 
harvest-fields,  a  roundel  sustained  and  prolonged 
by  the  hum  of  bees  and  the  buzzing  of  innu- 
merable flies,  and  the  sprightly  notes  of  crick- 
ets, attuned  to  the  soft  murmur  of  breeze-blown 
grass.  This  meadow  music  is  perceptible  to  any 
one  who  cares  to  listen  for  it,  but  it  is  rarely 
noticed.  What  we  call  the  "  quiet  "  country  life, 
or  "  the  quiet  summer  noon "  of  the  poet,  is  a 
misnomer. 

The  contrast,  to  the  observant  ear,  between  the 
meadow  in  a  hot  July  noon  and  the  same  meadow 
on  a  following  cool  and  overcast  day  would  be  re- 
markable could  we  but  compare  the  two  condi- 
tions during  the  same  moment  of  time.  Even  a 
cloud  shadow  passing  over  a  "  quiet "  meadow  will 
often  suddenly  reveal  to  us  how  noisy  it  really  was 
but  a  moment  before.  But  the  harsh  timbrel  of 
the  cicada  is  not  a  part  of  this  "  quiet "  music. 
He  is  no  retiring  fiddler  hiding  somewhere  among 
the  grass-blades.     His  note  rings  out  high  above 


248  EYE   SPY 

the  meadow  chorus,  and  he  always  gets  the  credit 
as  the  chief  soloist,  and  we  say, "Hark!  there's  a 
'  locust,'  "  when  we  ought  to  know  better.  Let  us 
try  and  straighten  out  this  confusion  of  terms,  and 
let  the  younger  generation  at  least  begin  the  re- 
form that  shall  eventually  set  matters  right  and 
correct  this  wide-spread  popular  error. 

Our  cicada  belongs  to  quite  another  family  of 
insects.  Instead  of  jaws  for  biting,  as  our  fiddling 
"  grasshopper,"  the  cicada  has  only  a  long  "  beak 
for  sucking,"  and  this  feature  alone  connects  him 
with  the  tribe  of  "  bugs."  Moreover,  his  methods 
of  music-making  are  very  different  from  those  of 
the  "grasshopper"  tribe.  It  is  the  male  only  that 
makes  the  music,  and  his  instrument  is  a  drum. 
He  carries  two  of  these  inclosed  within  his  body, 
the  opening  of  each  being  covered  beneath  by  a 
broad  plate,  which  is  easily  seen  on  the  under  sur- 
face of  the  body.  Deep  within  lies  the  "  drum," 
and  the  hard  and  hollow  body  of  the  insect  acts 
as  a  resonator  or  sounding-board.  This  drummer 
does  not  use  his  legs  as  drum-sticks,  as  might  be 
supposed,  his  drum  being  vibrated  by  twitching 
muscles  and  cords. 

The  method  by  which  the  sound  is  produced 
may  be  illustrated  by  a  simple  experiment.  Take 
a  small  piece  of  stiff,  sized  writing-paper  or  smooth 
Manilla  paper,  and  by  pressure  with  some  round- 
ed blunt  instrument   produce  a  slight   hollow  or 


THE   CICADAS    LAST   SONG  249 

blister  upon  its  surface.  Upon  pressure  from  ei- 
ther side  this  bHster  will  be  found  to  "snap,"  and 
could  we  but  repeat  the  operation  with  great  ra- 
pidity, a  continuous  sound  would  result.  The  toy 
called  the  "telegraph  ticker"  is  made  on  this  prin- 
ciple, the  blister  being  made  on  a  strip  of  steel, 
and  the  click  produced  by  pressure  upon  its  top, 
the  elasticity  of  the  metal  bringing  it  back  to  its 
original  position  of  rest,  and  each  motion  accom- 
panied by  a  snap  as  the  blister  changes  sides.  In- 
deed, we  need  look  no  further  than  the  bottom  of 
almost  any  well-ordered  tin  pan  for  a  complete 
illustration  of  this  principle.  So  our  cicada  is  a 
drummer,  and  his  favorite  tune  is  a  "  roll-call,"  the 
beats  following  each  other  with  such  rapidity  as 
to  form  a  tone.  All  through  the  summer  we 
hear  his  strain.  Even  at  this  moment,  as  I  write, 
a  very  long-winded  specimen  is  tuning  up  in  the 
tree  just  outside  my  studio  window,  and  I  am 
almost  moved  to  give  him  some  good  advice. 
Have  a  care,  my  noisy  minstrel.  If  it  were  I 
alone  who  were  within  ear-shot  of  your  noise  all 
might  be  well  with  you,  but  there  are  others  near 
by  to  whom  your  music  hath  charms.  Have  a 
care!  Only  a  moment  ago  I  heard  an  ominous 
hum  on  my  piazza,  and  upon  investigation  discov- 
ered a  huge  sand-hornet  prying  about  the  prem- 
ises. He  knows  what  he  is  looking  for,  and  so 
ought  you,  if  your  parents  have  done  their  duty 


250  EYE   SPY 

by  you.  Hereditary  instinct  at  least  ought  to 
teach  you  that  your  drum  should  play  second  fid- 
dle to  that  hornet's  humming  music.  I  remem- 
ber once  being  the  witness  of  the  sad  fate  of  an 
ancestor  of  yours  who  drummed  not  wisely  but 
too  well.  He  was  monopolizing  the  neighbor- 
hood, just  as  you  are  doing  now,  when  I  noticed 
his  principal  effort  was  suddenly  cut  short  in  the 
middle  in  a  most  unusual  manner.  If  he  had 
been  a  singer  I  would  have  supposed  some  rival 
had  clapped  a  hand  over  his  mouth,  so  suddenly 
was  the  song  abbreviated.  In  another  moment 
there  was  a  rustling  among  the  leaves,  as  some- 
thing fell  from  the  tree  in  his  immediate  neigh- 
borhood. Down,  down  it  dropped,  its  passage  to 
the  ground  accompanied  by  one  or  two  short, 
sharp,  spasmodic  tattoos  on  that  same  noisy  drum. 
The  object  fell  among  some  rocks,  but  before  I 
could  reach  the  spot  the  humming  sound  of  a 
sand- hornet  greeted  my  ears,  and  in  a  moment 
more  the  insect  took  flight  directly  across  my 
path,  and,  what  was  more,  he  was  not  alone. 
Would  you  know  who  accompanied  him  ?  Look 
then  on  the  picture  on  page  252,  and  have  a  care, 
my  noisy  friend,  for  the  lineal  descendant  of  that 
sand -hornet  now  hovers  outside  my  doorway. 
He  has  a  grudge  against  your  tribe,  and  he  is 
even  now  on  your  scent.  Perhaps  you  may  be 
interested  to  know  what  the  hornet  did  with  that 


■     THE    CICADAS    LAST    SONG  2$  I 

rash  ancestor  of  yours.  Well,  I  will  tell  you,  for 
your  own  good.  Guided  by  his  noisy  demonstra- 
tion, the  hornet  spied  him  on  his  twig,  and  in  a 
second  had  pounced  upon  him  and,  like  a  high- 
wayman, stabbed  him  to  the  heart  with  a  poisoned 
javelin.  This  cut  short  his  song,  as  you  may  well 
suppose,  and  he  fell  in  the  grasp  of  his  assailant. 
In  another  moment  the  hornet  got  a  fresh  hold 
upon  him,  and  though  your  ancestor,  like  yourself, 
was  much  bigger  than  the  hornet,  those  powerful, 
buzzing  wings  made  an  easy  burden  of  him  for 
quite  a  distance  across  the  meadow.  Here  our 
captor  took  a  rest,  and  after  tugging  that  helpless 
cicada  some  distance  up  a  high  fence-rail,  started 
off  on  another  fiio^ht,  which  was  brought  to  an 
end  in  the  grass  at  the  foot  of  a  tree.  In  a  mo- 
ment more  the  hornet  was  seen  tugging  its  huge 
load  up  the  trunk.  When  some  ten  feet  in  height 
a  third  flight  was  made,  this  time  gradually  set- 
tling down  on  the  roof  of  a  shed  down-hill.  Tug- 
ging his  game  to  the  edge  of  the  shed  roof,  a 
fourth  trip  was  made,  and  this  landed  the  two  in 
the  neighborhood  of  a  sand  bank  at  the  roadside 
in  the  valley  below. 

A  sand  bank  of  some  sort  is  usually  the  termi- 
nus of  this  strange  ride  of  the  cicada.  Thus  far 
many  curious  observers  have  followed  the  two, 
and  wondered  what  it  was  all  about.  If  the\-  had 
cared  to  follow  the  matter  to  the  end,  they  would 


his  own  requiem. 


doubtless  have  wondered  still 
more  at  the  strange  fate  which 
awaited  the  unlucky  harvest- 
fiy,  whose  last  song  had  been 
The  sand-hornet  is  also  known 


as  the  "digger-wasp,"  the  largest  of  its  kind, 
the  most  formidable  of  all  our  hornets,  and  car- 
rying within  its  black,  yellow- spotted  body  a 
most  searching  and  terrible  poisoned  sting.  It 
was  a  common  belief  in  ancient  times  that  "sev- 
enteen pricks  of  a  hornet "  would  "  kill  a 
man,"  to  quote  from  Pliny;   and  there  are  many 


v*^^' 


THE   cicada's   last   SONG  253 

country  people  to-day  who  would  as  quickly  at- 
tack a  rattlesnake   as   this   big  sand -hornet,  and 
who  "absolutely  know"  of  men  who  have  been 
"knocked  down"  and  even  "killed  "  by  one  stab 
of  its  sting.     However  this  may  be,  it  is  well  to 
keep  at  a  respectful   distance.     When  we  know 
what  the  little  yellow-jacket  can  do  with  its  tiny 
dagger,  and  then   reflect  that   this  sand -hornets 
javelin  is  about  a  third  of  an  inch  long,  we  can 
draw  our  own  conclusions,  and  will  readily  under- 
stand why  it  was  that  our  cicada's  song  was  cut 
short.     "  But  why  didn't  the   hornet  eat  him  on 
the  spot?     Why  should  it  fly  away  with  him  and 
yank   him   about    so    unmercifully?"      This    is  a 
common  question  with  those  who  have  observed 
the  episode  above  described.     A  visit  to  the  sand 
bank  would  have   explained   the  object  of  it  all. 
The  exposed  surface  is  seen  to  be  perforated  here 
and  there  with  holes  as  large  as  one's  little  finger, 
while  from  one  of  them  an  occasional  tiny  stream 
of  sand  pours  out,  and  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
horny,  spiked    legs    of    the    digger- wasp    within. 
Even   as  we  observe  him  closely  a  loud  hum  is 
heard,  and  a  filmy,  buzzing  object  falls  precipitate- 
ly upon  the  bank,  and  in  the  jumble  of  wings  and 
black  bodies  we  now  distinguish  our  hornet  and 
cicada,  which  only  a  moment  before  had  started 
from  the  edge  of  the  shed  roof  above.    The  cicada 
is  apparently  dead,  and  is  now  an  easy  prey  as  the 


254  EYE   SPY 

wasp  lugs  him  to  the  mouth  of  one  of  the  bur- 
rows, and  soon  disappears  in  its  depths. 

Further  than  this  few  have  followed  the  couple. 
But  Professor  C.  V.  Riley,  our  government  ento- 
mologist, has  unearthed  the  entire  mystery,  and 
eye -witnessed  the  fate  of  our  cicada,  and  I  am 
thus  enabled  to  picture  the  rest  of  the  tragedy. 
What  now  follows  is  very  similar  to  what  I  de- 
scribed in  a  previous  paper  concerning  the  mud- 
wasp  nest  packed  with  its  dead  spiders.  Our  ci- 
cada is  not  dead — more's  the  pity.  The  thrust  of 
the  sting  has  only  paralyzed  the  insect,  in  order 
that  the  young  of  the  hornet  may  be  provided  with 
living  food.  From  the  opening  of  the  tunnel  in 
the  sand  our  harvest -fly  was  lugged  a  distance 
of  about  six  inches,  when  the  tunnel  branched 
in  various  directions.  Down  a  branch  for  about 
eight  inches  more,  and  his  journey  terminated  in 
a  dungeon,  where  his  career  was  doomed  to  end. 
Doubtless  each  of  the  other  branches  held  one  or 
two  similar  prisoners,  for  the  cicada  is  the  favorite 
prey  of  this  particular  wasp.  Once  arrived  at  the 
dungeon,  the  hornet  deposits  an  ^^<g  upon  its  vic- 
tim, and  leaves  him  in  its  charge.  In  a  few  days 
it  hatches  into  a  larva  with  such  a  voracious  ap- 
petite that  within  a  week  it  has  devoured  the  con- 
tents of  the  cicada's  shell  and  reached  its  full 
growth.  It  now  incloses  itself  within  a  silky  co- 
coon, and  after  abiding  the  winter  emerges  at  the 


THE  cicada's  last  song 


255 


brim  in  the  spring  a  full-fledged  hornet,  with  its 
mouth  watering  at  the  thought  of  cicadas. 

What  a  strange  wonder-working  medicine  is 
this  which  the  hornet  carries  in  its  laboratory ! 
In  the  guise  of  deatli  it  yet  prolongs  life  indefi- 


-^-^ 


>  v 


>-'%i 


nitely.  The  ordinary  existence  of  the  cicada,  for 
instance,  is  but  a  few  weeks  at  most,  and  yet  it  is 
claimed  by  Mr.  Riley  that  if  for  any  reason  the 
^%%  of  the  wasp  should  fail  to  hatch,  the  paralyzed 
cicada  will  remain  in  its  condition  of  suspended 
animation  for  a  year,  and  presumably  longer. 
Here   is   a  suo^orestion   for  the   materia  medica 


256  EYE  SPY 

which  may  open  up  immortal  fame  to  the  chemist 
of  the  future.  What  is  this  mysterious  essence 
which  the  wasp  carries  in  its  poniard  ?  As  Pro- 
fessor Riley  suggestively  remarks,  "  If  man  could 
do  what  these  wasps  have  done  from  time  im- 
memorial, viz.,  preserve  for  an  indefinite  period 
the  animals  they  feed  on  by  the  simple  insertion 
of  some  toxic  fluid  in  the  tissues,  he  would  be 
able  to  revolutionize  the  present  methods  of  ship- 
ping cattle  and  sheep,  and  obviate  much  of  the 
cruelty  which  now  attends  the  transportation  of 
live-stock  and  much  of  the  expense  involved  in 
cold  storas^e." 


Lib 
O,  Sta 


^.>-  '^.> 


.it^av^- 


.  IN'DE/X 


Acrid  buttercup  teaves,  lo. 
Agaric,  142,  144. 

Alders,  leaf-rolling  beetles  of,  233. 
Amanita   muscarius,    142;    print 

from,  143. 
American  velvet  plant,  25. 
Andrena  bee,  222. 
Andromeda-bell,  its  welcome  to  the 

bee,  221,  222. 
Aniline  bath,  47. 

Aphides,  125,  126  ;  pest  of  the  rose- 
garden;  plants  and  trees,  1 26;  suck- 
ing the  sap,  127  ;'  disappearance  of 
a  swarm,  128;  all  females;  end  of 
season  males  appear  ;   wonderful 
multiplication  of,  233,  236. 
Aphis  lion  {Hemorobida),  128,  129. 
Aphrophora,  "  spume-bearer,"  89. 
Apple-trees  bearing   pumpkins  and 

squashes,  192. 
Aquilegia     canadensis,    columbine, 

46. 
Arachne,  106. 

Archippus.     See  Butterflies. 
Argiope  riparia,  ballooning  or  flying 
spiders,  120. 
17 


Artists  as  interpreters  of  the  beauty 

of  the  commonplace,  26. 
Asters,  no. 

Attacus  protnetheus,  75. 
Aurelias,  161. 

Balloon,  the  true,  118. 

Ballooning  spiders  {Argiope  riparia), 
annual  picnic  of,  114  ;  shooting  of 
webs,  115  ;  sailing  out  of  sight  ; 
sending  out  broad  bands  from 
their  spinnerets,  117;  skilful 
handling,  118  ;  making  the  bal- 
loon ;  the  ascension  ;  manner  of 
alighting,  1 19. 

Baltimore  oriole,  172. 

Banquet  of  beetles,  134. 

Barberry  blossoms,  shrinking  hearts  ; 
strange  manners,  224  ;  an  unsus- 
pecting agent,  227. 

Bedegnar,  sponge-gall,  43. 

Bees  :  —  bumble,  6,  91  ;  honey, 
7;  yellow- jacket,  91 ;  Andrena, 
222. 

Beetles:— floundering,  i;  tiger  {Ci- 
cindelidcB),o\\,2;  snapping  (^/a/^-r), 


258 


INDEX 


20;  perfumed  {Ostnoderma  scabei), 
133  ;  blue  oil,  239. 

Bellworts,  44. 

Bigelow,  Hosea,  quoted,  224. 

Billings,  Josh,  quoted,  92,  124. 

Birds' -  nests,  materials  of:  —  milk- 
weed bark,  toad-skins,  and  snake- 
skins,  171,  172  ;  twine  and  horse- 
hair, caterpillar-skins,  172  ;  wool, 
dandelion  seeds,  173;  gray  lichens 
and  seeds,  177. 

Black-paper  hornet,  his  bad  reputa- 
tion, 94  ;  a  tempting  target  ;  re- 
sults of  an  attack  on  his  house, 
96  ;  making  themselves  promiscu- 
ous ;  the  stoical  bachelor.  97  ;  his 
discomfiture,  98  ;  antics  explained; 
his  hiding  -  place  revealed,  100  ; 
favorite  hunting-ground,  loi  ;  oc- 
casional big  game ;  life  of;  manner 
of  laying  eggs;  several  broods  in  a 
season,  102  ;  number  of  tiers  in  a 
nest ;  winter  the  best  time  to  ex- 
amine nests,  103. 

Black  snake,  85. 

Blossom  etiquette,  221,  222. 

Blue  carnation,  46. 

Blue  dahlia,  45. 

Blue  oil  beetle,  239. 

Blue  pansies,  46. 

Blue  rose,  45,  46. 

Blue  tulip,  45. 

Bluets,  Houstonia,  24,  208, 
209. 

Boletus,  142. 

Bridge-building  spiders,  104. 

Brooklyn  Bridge,  104;  "carrier" 
or  "  traveller  "  should  have  been 
called  "spider,"  105;  Engineer 
Farrington  crossing,  no. 

Brown  screech-owl,  151. 


Browning,  Robert,  quoted,  26. 

"  Bull's-eye  "  caterpillar,  156. 

Bumble-bee,  6,  91. 

Butterflies  asleep  at  night,  168. 

Butterflies: — Idalia  {Af-gynnis  ida- 
lid),  Archippus  (^Danais  archip- 
piis),  yellow  swallow-tails  {Papilto 
turmts),  131  ;  Red  Admiral  (  Va- 
nessa Afalanta),  155,  15B,  161; 
"comma"  (Vanessa  coi/ima),  156, 
161,  170;  AtaXanld,  {Cynthia  Ata- 
lanta\  158;  semicolon  {Vanessa 
interrpgationis),  161. 

Canterbury  bells,  42. 

Cardanus  quoted,  93. 

Careless  observation  of  nature,  185, 
186. 

Carnation,  blue,  46. 

Catbrier,  188. 

Caterpillars:  —  woolly  -  bear  {Arcii- 
adce),  148;  "bull's-eye"  {Satttr- 
nia  lo),  156;  sphinx  {Chcerocampa 
panipenafrix,  241. 

Cecropia,  156. 

Chinese  pink,  73. 

Chipmonk,  153. 

Chrysalids,  i6r. 

Chrysanthemum,  86,  127. 

Cicada,  87,  246  ;  his  manner  of  feed- 
ing ;  how  he  differs  from  the  grass- 
hopper ;  the  secret  of  his  music, 
250;  his  last  song;  borne  off  by 
his  captor,  251  ;  living  food,  254; 
suspended  animation,  255. 

Clintonia,  239. 

Clothes  moth  (  Tineidcr),  170. 

Clover  (  Tri folium  ),  four  -  leaved, 
215;  nine-leaved,  found  in  groups, 
216;  possibilities  of  cultivation, 
217  ;    an    exceptional    find,   218, 


INDEX 


259 


219;     saying    Us     prayers,    219; 
lotus,  222. 
Cobweb    showers,   114;    blinding 
dogs  interrupting  sport,  1 14;  Hakes 
and  rags  of,  115  ;  silken  streamers, 
ilC;    shower    in    Prospect    Tark, 
Brooklyn,  120;      on    Brooklyn 
Bridge,  121. 
Cocoons: — curious,  145  ;  solid  to  the 
core,    147  ;     ribs    and    vertebrae, 
149;   secret   of   the  hollow,  151  ; 
what  the  pellets  were,  152  ;  yield- 
ing wasps,  242. 
Colors    of    flowers,  laws    governing 
colors  and  combinations.  44,  45  ; 
natural  exception  to ;    three   pri- 
mary colors  in  the  hyacinth,  Egyp- 
tian lotus  ;  sky  reflections  destroy- 
ing color,  45. 
Columbine (^^?«7<?^/rt  canadensis,  A. 
chrysantha,  A.  ccsrulea),  puzzling 
color    classification,    from    white 
through  all  shades  of  red,  yellow, 
and  blue,  46. 
"Comma."     See  Butterflies. 
Coral,  gray,  73. 
Cow-spittle,  84,  86. 
Crickets,  71. 
Cross  -  fertilization    of    flowers,   30, 

167,  208,  211,  229. 
Cuban  belle's  toilet,  21. 
Culpepper,  Dr.,  quoted,  154. 
Cyanic,  flowers   with  all    shades  of 

blue  and  red  without  yellow,  45. 
Cynips  seininator,  Cyuips  roscr,  gall- 
flies, 40. 

Dahlia,  blue,  45. 

Daisy,    pesky    white    weed,    almost 

identical  with  the  marguerite,  25  ; 

a  marvel  of  a  flower,  28,  205,  211. 


Dandelion.     Seeds   used    for  l)irds'- 
nests,  173  ;  mutilation  of,  174  ;  a 

week  of  retirement,  175  ;  flight  of 

the    seed-bed,   176;    the    burglar 

discovered,  177,  211. 
Darwin,  202,  209,  224. 
Darwin  flowers,  166,  167,  168. 
De  Candolle.     Color  limitations  in 

flowers,  45,  202. 
Deer-mouse,  151. 
Desmodium,  223. 
"  Digger  -  wasps,"     sand  -  hornets, 

252. 
Dungeons  of  death,  54. 

Egyptian  history,  53. 

Egyptian  yellow  lotus,  45. 

Evening  primrose  {(Enothera  bien- 
nis), 85  ;  luminous  blossoms  of, 
163;  daylight  mystery;  seeds, 
pods,  and  caterpillars,  164;  curious 
secret;  two  buds,  165;  primrose 
blooms  for  moths,  168  ;  blighted 
buds,  169  ;  a  poor  recompense, 
170. 

Fairy  sponges,  the  growth  of  ;  rich 
colors  of  sweetbrier  sponge,  38, 
42  ;  contents  of  the  sponge,  42. 

False  scorpions  {PeJipalpi'),  iSr; 
among  old  books  and  papers  ;  born 
rovers,  182. 

Figwort  {Scrophiilaria),  tall  and 
spindling,  purplish-olive  blossoms ; 
odor  of;  food  for  wasps,  28;  fer- 
tilized by  wasps;  bud  open  in  tlie 
morning;  flowers  change  from  day 
to  day,  30;    growth  of  tlit  ovaiv, 

32. 
Flies:   -gall.  40;     lace-ving,  122; 
gold  -  banded,  129  ;     house,    178; 


26o 


INDEX 


laphria,  182  ;  ichneumon,  ig6  ; 
parasitic,  200  ;  harvest,  87,  246. 

Floundering  beetle,  color  of,  i  ; 
funny  characteristics  of;  leaking 
habits,  2;  playing  possum,  3;  feats 
of;  diminutive  size  when  young ; 
golden-yellow  case,  4  ;  number  of 
joints,  5  ;  a  snug  resting-place  ; 
first  outing,  6  ;  in  the  bee  hotel  ; 
transformation,  8 ;  in  the  mummy- 
case  ;  change  of  diet,  10. 

Fly-fungus,  184. 

Flying-machine,  toy,  117. 

Fox-fire,  a  column  of  phosphores- 
cence, of  greenish,  ghostly  hue,  12; 
prosaic  fence-post ;  effect  of  a  reflec- 
tion of  lantern  in  water,  13;  feeding 
on  darkness,  14,  short  life  of,  15; 
village  spook;  haunted  mill,  16;  a 
night  terror,  18  ;  six  square  feet 
of  brilliancy,  19  ;  yeast  as  a  pos- 
sible cause;  dead  fish  ;  curious  ef- 
fect from  decaying  potatoes,  20  ; 
phosphorus  not  always  present ; 
burnt  oyster-shells  in  combina- 
tion with  certain  acids  ;  the  sup- 
posed secret  of,  22  ;  decoy  for 
deer;  the  largest  on  record,  23. 

Frog-hoppers,  89. 

Frog-spit,  84,  89. 

Gall-fly  ( Cynips  seminatoi;  Cyuips 
roscB),  40  ;  a  cousin  to  the  wasps  ; 
magician  in  chemistry,  41. 

Genista,  223. 

Geometrical  web-makers,  120. 

Ghost-fire,  15. 

Gold-banded  flower- fly,  larva  of,  129. 

Gossamer  showers,  113. 

Graiiiatopho7-n  frisignata,  "Professor 
\Viggler,"8i,  82. 


Grape-vine,  186-194. 

Grasshoppers,  71,  195;  "Quakers;" 
camp-meeting  ground,  197  ;  a  para- 
lyzed specimen ;  unnatural  move- 
ments, 198  ;  a  transparent  body, 
199  ;  a  swarm  of  flies,  200  ;  246. 

Green  roses,  187. 

Grew,  Nehemias,  205. 

Hang-rird.  172. 

Harris,  "  Insects  Injurious  to  Vegeta- 
tion," quoted,  89,  134,  233,  237. 

Harvest-fly,  87,  246. 

Hawthorne's  fox-fire,  19,  23. 

"  History  of  Selborne,"  114. 

Hollyhock,  45. 

Honey-dew,  126. 

Honey-sippers,  221. 

Hornet,  87,  92  ;  as  mad  as,  93  ; 
always  on  the  rampage,  94,  100, 
102. 

Horse -hair  snakes,  New  England 
farmers'  idea  of  the  origin  of ; 
stories  of,  65  ;  flying  over  the 
meadows  in  haying  time,  66;  two 
specimens  in  alcoliol,  69  ;  what 
was  found  in  a  bait-box,  71. 

"  Hot-foot,"  92. 

House  -  fly  (  Mtisca  do-nii'slicn  ),  his 
never-ending  toilet,  178  ;  a  curious 
tag,  179;  live  young  lobster, 
strength  of  his  grip,  180  ;  his 
many  enemies  ;  abundant  use  for 
all  his  eyes,  182  ;  September  and 
October  danger  months;  the  white 
nimbus  ;  acute  dyspepsia,  183. 

Houstonia.  bluets,  20S,  209. 

Hunters,  161. 

Hyacinth,  45. 

Ichneumon  flies,  196. 


INDEX 


261 


Idalia.     See  Butteitlies. 

Jibing  neiglibors,  68 
Johnny-jumper,  46. 
Jussieu,  202. 

Keats,  John,  quoted,  164. 

Lace- WING  fly  (Chrysopa  octclata):— 
Color  of  eyes  and  wings,  122  ; 
lasting  odor  ;  ways  of  the  gauzy 
sprite,  123;  method  of  egg-laying; 
born  in  a  land  of  plenty,  124  ;  a 
voracious  appetite  ;  tubular  teeth, 
126. 

Lady-bug,  larva  of,  129. 

"  Laphria-fly,"  182. 

Lilac-bushes,  75. 

Lindley,  202. 

Linnaeus,  202,  206. 

Locust,  232,  246. 

Lotus  clover,  222. 

Lovelorn  maiden,  213. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  224. 

McCooK,  Rev. Dr.,  quoted, iio-i  18. 

Meadow  contrasts,  247. 

Mignonette,  204. 

Monk's-hood  blossom,  205. 

Morning  gossamer,  112. 

Moths  : — Polyphemus  (  Tclea  poly- 
pheinus),  Attacus  prometheus. 
75. 196;  Trisignata(6^rrt;«rt/c//^^rfl! 
trisignata),  81  ;  Cecropia,  Bull's- 
eye  {Saturnia  lo),  156;  twi- 
light moth;  common  clothes  moth 
(^TineiJa),  170. 

Mullein  (fV;/'(?.fr«/«  thrapstis),  25. 

Mummy-cases,  54. 

Mushrooms,  138  ;  color  of  polypo- 
rus,   139  ;    manner   of    making    a 


spore -print,   140-144;    colors   of 
prints;  high  relief,  142;  fixing Ihe 
prints,  143. 
Mutilla  ant,  197. 

Nasturtium,  205. 

Nature,  check  to  rapid  increase  of, 

195- 

Nelumbo,  water-lily,  45. 

Nettle  {Celtis),  154. 

Nettle-leaf  tent-builders,  laying  the 
egg,  155  ;  contents  of  the  curled 
leaf,  156;  gray  and  spine-covered, 
156  ;  rapid  change  of  home,  157  ; 
another  specimen  of  different 
color,  stingless,  158  ;  size  of  full- 
grown  specimen  ;  a  surprise  ;  pre- 
paring for  the  transformation, 
159;  an  ever  -  interesting  reve- 
lation; quaint  golden  ear- 
drops, 160  ;  an  astonishing  trick, 
161. 

New  England  farmers,  65. 

Niagara  Suspension-bridge,  manner 
of  laying,  105  ;  identical  with  that 
of  the  spider,  106. 

Noctiluca,  marine  phosphorescent 
animalculre,  21. 

Noisy  wigglers,  76. 

Nyinphaa,  water-lily,  45. 

OAK-apple,  43. 

October  rowen-fields,  Il6. 

Odor  of  woods,  131. 

Oil  beetle.     See  Iketles. 

Old  rose,  73. 

Orb-weavers,  120. 

Orchard  oriole,  172. 

Osmoderma  scabei,  perfumed  beetle, 

134- 
Ovid  quoted,  93. 


262 


INDEX 


Pansies  ( Viola  tricolor) : — Great  va- 
riety of  color,  46 ;  trickery  of  fiorists ; 
aniline  bath,  47  ;  a  chemical  ex- 
periment ;  astonishing  color,  48  ; 
ammonia  as  an  agent ;  coloring  an 
entire  plant  emerald  green,  50  ; 
results  from  the  fumes  of  sulphur 
matches,  52. 

Passion-flower,  189. 

Passion-vine,  186. 

Perfumed  beetle  {^Osmoderma  scabei), 
curious  odor  of,  133  ;  suggesting 
Russia  -  leather  ;  home  on  the 
maple-tree;  sipping  the  sap;  easily 
startled,  134. 

Pink,  205. 

Plant-louse  of  the  apple-tree,  236. 

Pliny,  64,  114,  116,  252. 

Pollen  bearers,  30. 

Polyphemus.     See  Moths. 

Poly  par  us,  144. 

Preservation  of  food  by  wasps,  256. 

Primrose  ash,  73. 

Professor  of  biology,  70. 

"  Professor  Wiggler,"  what  a  florist's 
window  suggested  ;  the  lilac-bush 
his  home,  73  ;  his  characteristics, 
74  ;  how  he  came  to  be  named  ; 
bringing  him  up  by  hand,  75  ; 
lively  capers,  76  ;  five  changes  of 
clothes;  voracious  feeding,  77;  how 
he  retains  his  head-shells,  78  ;  dig- 
ging out  a  home,  79  ;  home  com- 
pleted; skilful  concealment;  what 
comes  from  the  cocoon,  81 ;  bur- 
rowing habits,  82. 

Puff-balls,  136;  its  purple  cloud, 
136;  rapid  change  of  substance; 
its  cloud  mass  of  reproducti"e 
atoms,  137  ;  same  results  from 
mushrooms  and  toadstools,  138. 


Pungent  odors,  132. 
"Quaker."     See  Grasshopper. 

"  Racer,"  85. 

Red  Admiral.     See  Butterflies. 

"  Red-hot  child  of  nature,"  92,  96. 

Redstart,  176. 

Red-tailed  hawk,  152,  153. 

Riddles  in  flowers,  202  ;  curi- 
ous specimens ;  botanists  and 
philosophers,  204  ;  pollen  -  carry- 
ing, 207  ;  galaxy  of  white  or 
blue  stars,  208  ;  variety  of  con- 
struction, 209  ;  solving  the  riddle, 
211. 

Riley,  C.  V.,  quoted,  254. 

"  Robin's  pin-cushion,"  43. 

Roland  for  an  Oliver,  59. 

Roots,  becoming  stems  and  bearing 
leaves,  87. 

Rose  garden,  126. 

Roses,  blue,  45,  46;  green,  187. 

Rosy  moth,  85. 

Rowen-field,  116,  218. 

Sabbath  sanctuary  bouquet,  26. 

Sacred  "  scarabaeus,"  emblem  of  im- 
mortality, 53. 

Sage  blossom,  its  wefcome  to  the 
bee,  221. 

Sand-hornet: — Prospecting  for  game, 
249  ;  the  capture,  250  ;  manner  of 
transporting  its  prey,  251  ;  its  col- 
or and  terrible  sting,  252  ;  not  to 
be  trifled  with  ;  its  home  in  the 
sand-bank,  253  ;  deposits  its  egg 
and  leaves,  254  ;  its  mysterious 
poison,  256. 

Scrophiilaria,  figwort,  28. 

Semicolon.     See  Butterflies. 


INDEX 


263 


Sheep-spit,  84, 

Singular  mimic  fruit,  42. 

Small  speckled  beetle,  86. 

Smilax,  188. 

Snake  expert,  67. 

Snake  stories,  65. 

Snake-spit,  84,  85. 

Snapping  beetle.     .See  Beetles. 

"  Snowin'  'pider-webs,"  113. 

Sphinx  cuterpiWar  {C/iarocawJ>a  pam- 
penatrix)  with  his  burden,  241, 
242  ;  the  mischief-maker  (^Micro- 
gaster,  245. 

Spice-bush,  131,  132. 

Spiders,  webs  one  hundred  feet  long; 
autumn  best  time  for  observa- 
tion, 106;  precocious  baby  spiders; 
building  a  bridge,  108;  moored  by 
guy  threads,  no  ;  ballooning,  112; 
at  sea,  113. 

Sponge -ball,  commonly  known  as 
Bedegnar,  43. 

Sprengel,  166,  202,  206. 

"  Spume  -  bearer  "  {Aphrophora),  89  ; 
allied  to  bugs  ;  his  aerated  bath  ; 
graduation  from  his  surroundings, 
87  ;  his  color  and  size  ;  his  alert- 
ness, 88  ;  time  of  egg  laying  and 
hatching ;  power  of  leaping,  8g  ; 
no  secret  process  of  making  suds; 
sun's  evaporation  necessitates  con- 
tinuous additions,  90. 

Squirrel,  153. 

Statue  of  Liberty,  108. 

Stems  assuming  the  functions  of 
roots,  187. 

Summer  meadows,  83. 

Sweetbrier  sponge,  40. 

Sweet-pea,  188. 

Tachiiia,  a  parasitic  fly,  200. 


Tendrils,  what  they  are  ;  a  stem  or 
modified  root,  187  ;  reaching  for 
conquest,  188  ;  not  a  special  or 
primal  organ,  189  ;  method  of  con- 
traction, 191  ;  the  reverse  twist,  its 
function,  192  ;  singular  botanical 
prank,  194. 

Tlielaphora  carulea,  fox-fire,  22. 

Tiger- beetle,  wonderful  speed  and 
agility  of,  2. 

Toad-spit,  84. 

Toadstools,  ig,  138 

Trailing  cobwebs,  113. 

True  locust,  the,  232. 

Tulip,  blue,  45. 

Tumble  -  bug,  his  former  eminence, 

53  ;  used  for  ornaments  and  deco- 
rative purposes ;  hisproud lineage, 

54  ;  male  and  female  inseparable  ; 
the  two  familiar  species  ;  its  season, 
55;  curious  antics;  bug  talk,  56;  a 
question  of  selection,  58  ;  indefati- 
gable workers  ;  manner  of  working, 
59  ;  Mrs.  Tumble-bug's  industry, 
60 ;  singular  manner  of  burying 
the  ball,  61  ;  the  chrysalis  state, 
62;  young  Mr.  Tumble-bug  begins 
life,  63. 

Twilight  moth.     See  Moths. 

U.NION  Square  Fountain,  45. 

ViREO,  strange  materials  in  the  nest 
of,  147,  164,  171,  172. 

Wasps,  as  cross-fertilizers,  30  ;  man- 
ner of  transferring  pollen,  31,  91  ; 
"  Digger,"  sand  hornets,  242,  252. 

Weeds,  artistically  treated,  27  ; 
barn-yard  weeds  no  longer  com- 
monplace, 28. 


264 


INDEX 


Welcome  odor  of  the  woods,  131. 
Welcome  of  the  flowers,  30,  223. 
White,  Gilbert,  quoted,  114-117. 
White,  J.,  161. 
White  Mountains,  97. 
White-tailed  black  wasp,  94. 
Wiggler  moth  {Gramatophora  trisig- 

nata),    time    of     appearance     of, 

81. 
Wild-star  cucumber,  189. 
Witch-hazel  divining-rod,  214. 
Wolf-spiders,   short-legged   dodgers; 

crab  -  like     manner    of    walking, 

120. 
Wood  fairies  at   work;   their  magic 

wands,  36  ;   mischief-makers,  37  ; 

results  of  their  pranks,  38. 


Woolly-bear  caterpillar.  See  Cater- 
pillar. 

Woolly  flock,  230  ;  expert  in  bugs, 
231  ;  what  constitutes  a  bug,  232, 
235  ;  first  appearance  in  June  ;  on 
alders  ;  destruction  of  apple-trees  ; 
sucking-beaks,  233  ;  wingless  but 
covered  with  woolly  down,  236. 

Worm-eating  warbler,  vireo,  164. 

Xanthic,  flowers  including  yellow 
in  their  color,  45. 

Yellow  geranium,  45. 
Yellow  larkspur,  45. 
Yellow-jacket  bee,  91. 
Yellow-warbler,  171. 


